What came first?

[Dori]

What came first: the chicken or the egg? After answering, tell us your reasoning.



This ought to spark a good discussion (I hope). :)

[Bakiryu]

Both of course. You can easily tell the chicken was a result of a genetic mutation that proved beneficial and dominant.

[1n50mn14]

The egg.

I beleive the chicken evolved from an early reptile, so therefore, that early reptile would have gone down a long road of evolution until the final step when it finally layed the egg which would contain the first 'modern' chicken as we know it today. I'm no scientist, but that makes logical sense to me.

^And I accidentally voted chicken instead of egg. Sorry if I messed up your poll :blush:

[Dori]

Both of course. You can easily tell the chicken was a result of a genetic mutation that proved beneficial and dominant.

Yes, but that doesn't quite answer the question. The creature that today's chicken evolved from (the pre-chicken) had to have laid an egg that contained an embryo with DNA that is consistent with today's chicken. Thus, clearly the egg preceded the chicken.

[Oniw17]

Eggs were around millions of years before chickens evolved. See early vertabrates.

[1n50mn14]

I guess maybe the question should be rephrased: what came first: the egg of a chicken or the chicken...

[Dori]

Eggs were around millions of years before chickens evolved. See early vertabrates.


I guess maybe the question should be rephrased: what came first: the egg of a chicken or the chicken...

At last. I purposely left the question as is to see if anyone would use that argument. Thus, we see the old metaphor flawed at best.

Any other arguments for either side?

[stephofthenight]

i say the chicken. becasue god created two of every animal, male and a female. well that whole story. he didnt make the egg, he made the chicken who made the egg.

[Dori]

i say the chicken. becasue god created two of every animal, male and a female. well that whole story. he didnt make the egg, he made the chicken who made the egg.

Pope John Paul II once said:


In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points....Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies -- which was neither planned nor sought -- constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory.
(John Paul II, Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Evolution (http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP961022.HTM))

Thus, even from a religious standpoint, it is still plausible to believe that God created the "pre-chicken" (see above) which then evolved into today's chicken. :thumbs_up