Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?
The answer to this conundrum primarily depends on how the question is perceived, and what people define as a chicken and an egg. For instance, the question could be perceived as referencing a t-rex egg, which undoubtedly existed before a chicken. (In this article, we are going to disregard that thought and assume that the egg in question is a chicken egg.) Speaking of chicken eggs, there are also many ways to perceive what a chicken egg is. Is it something that is hatched by a chicken, or something that hatches a chicken? The definition of said egg changes our answer. If a chicken egg is hatched by a chicken, then the chicken came first. On the contrary, if a chicken egg hatches a chicken, the egg came first.
Even though I haven’t provided a definite answer to these questions, we’re going to ignore that, and talk about why some people think the egg came first. Many who believe that the egg preceded the chicken say they believe this because of evolution. In the words of Anna Danieluk, “Two chicken-like species mated, which would mean that they produced an egg that then evolved into an actual chicken, and not that suddenly, a random chicken appeared, because it couldn’t. Because it had to evolve from a different species.” If this is confusing, Mr. Belote’s statement can put this side of the argument into simpler terms. “ I think the egg had to come first. Because, like a fully formed chicken just doesn’t appear out of nowhere.”
To contradict that claim, we have the belief that the chicken came first. Mr. Arnold claims that this belief is correct because, “It seems that only a chicken can lay a chicken egg. That means that a pre-chicken can only lay a pre-chicken egg. One might object by saying that this introduces another infinite regress of pre-chickens and pre-chicken eggs (Which came first, the pre-chicken or the pre-chicken egg?), but there is a way to break the chain of events. It is quite reasonable that a pre-chicken can lay a pre-chicken egg that contains the genetic make-up of a chicken . . . Thus, our new chain of events looks like this: pre-chicken - pre-chicken egg - chicken.” To summarize, Mr. Arnold says that only a chicken can lay a chicken egg, so the chicken had to come first. Thus, he defines a chicken egg as something laid by a chicken.
In conclusion, there are many different ways to analyze and view the question of whether the chicken or chicken egg came first. As of now, we don’t truly know the answer, but we can continue to hypothesize. If you would like to explore this topic more, Mr. Arnold’s entire chicken-egg argument is linked below. (You should check it out, it’s super cool!)
Sarah Crittenden