- Archives -

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? 

And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky."  Genesis 1:20 

Introduction 

The scene we are witnessing is a grade seven classroom.  The names are not real.  The teacher is a science teacher and the lesson of the day is on the origin of life on earth.

 ------------------- 

Teacher: Peter Kelly, tell me.  We have here two things, a chicken and an egg.  According to science, which came first, the chicken or the egg? 

Peter Kelly: The chicken, Miss Knowing. 

Teacher: Marianne, what do you say – which one came first, the chicken or the egg? 

Marianne: The egg, Miss. 

Teacher: Stewart, please, would you be so kind to tell us, who answered correctly, Peter Kelly or Marianne? 

Stewart: I am not sure, Miss.  I think that they both are right.  However, they both may be wrong; it all depends from which angle you look at it.  

Teacher: Can you explain what you mean, “They both are right”?  Either one is right or the other. 

Stewart: By saying that they are both right and…I mean, Miss, that that there is no way we can say whether the egg or chicken showed up first.  We weren’t there, and nobody else was, to see what really happened before or after the “Big Bang”. 

At Stewart’s reply, the teacher felt not a little uncomfortable, but she quickly dismissed him with a reproachful look.  Then she decided to praise Marianne for giving her the expected answer, and at the same time, correcting Peter Kelly for not knowing his science.  

Peter Kelly: Miss Knowing, why is it that the egg comes first and not the chicken? 

Teacher: My dear Peter, science says so.  The book is right open in front of you; at page 111.  Read it and see for yourself! 

Peter Kelly: Please, Miss Knowing, can you explain to me, in your own words, how do we get a chicken from an egg? 

Teacher: Sorry, Peter, I don’t think I understand your question. 

Peter Kelly: What I mean is: what are the chances of having a chicken from an egg, when we know that eggs are sterile without a rooster.  Science says life originated from nothing.  But we know, in the case of a chicken and an egg, that the probability of life and continuity of life from an egg, are very remote.  For continuity of life we need a hen, and a rooster to fertilize the egg.  Otherwise the egg is sterile.  A sterile egg is just an egg.  It might be good for food, just once, and that is all; while a hen is not only good for food, but also for more eggs.  In addition, with the ‘assistance’ of a rooster, we get more chickens.  Thus how can we say that the egg comes first? 

Teacher: I told you, Peter, the book says so, and I believe what is written in it must be true.  My job is not to speculate, but to teach you what it is in the book. 

Peter Kelly: Miss Knowing, you didn’t answer my question.  You just repeated that ‘the egg comes first’, because the ‘book says so’.  I want to know how it is possible that the egg comes first and not the chicken?  Where the egg did come from in the first place, and what fertilized the egg, if there was nothing else there but the egg? 

Teacher: Maybe the egg just happened to be there … I do not know.  I believe in science – it cannot be wrong.  Believe me, Peter. 

Now the teacher felt more uncomfortable than ever.  She did not have the answer for it, and she felt challenged, first by Stewart with his ambivalence; now by Peter Kelly’s ‘strange reasoning’.  At last, Ms Knowing decided to ask Peter Kelly this last question before putting an end to it. 

Teacher: Peter Kelly, why is that you insist on saying that it’s not possible that the egg came first?  Can you answer me just once in a concise manner?  

Peter Kelly: Because we are talking about the origin of life, I think that there is more life in a chook than there is in an egg, Miss Knowing. 

Teacher: Why is that? 

Peter Kelly: An egg is not a guarantee of life, Miss Knowing.  A chook is, if it is alive, naturally.  

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  John 1:1 

All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  John 1:3-4 

Appendix

- Ancient and Modern -

Peter Jones

Cicero puts the defence of divinatio into the mouth of his brother Quintus, who defines it as 'the foreknowledge and foretelling of events that happen by chance'.  This occupies Book One, and in Book Two Cicero refutes him point by point.  First, he point out that there is no area of life which the diviner can deal with more efficiently than the experts: for questions of illness one goes to a doctor, for nature to the scientist, for right wrong to the philosopher, for statecraft to the politician, etc.  The diviner has no role anywhere.  Second, Cicero points out that the definition makes no logical sense.  If something happens 'by chance' it cannot, by definition, be predicted; otherwise it could not be said to have happened 'by chance'.  If an event were truly to happen 'by chance', Cicero goes on, even a god would not be able to predict it; so how could a diviner? Divinatio is therefore impossible if everything is controlled by chance.

Contact: nadir@sheddinglight.info

Last Updated: