The Chicken or the Egg?

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

(As you may be able to tell, this is one of those off topic posts I occasionally put up.)

As it turns out, my children think the answer is simple: If you believe in evolution, the egg came first; if you reject evolution, it’s the chicken.

If you take Genesis literally, and God created all birds on the 5th day, then the chicken has to come before the egg because the egg would require a chicken to incubate it.

If you don’t take Genesis literally, and you believe in evolution, then the egg came first because it was produced by something that was almost a chicken, and then the chicken came out of the egg.

Of course, I should be saying, "If you believe in evolution, then you believe the egg came first; if you reject evolution, you believe it’s the chicken."

In this case, what’s true is true no matter what you believe. We can argue all we want about whether Genesis is literal or evolution is true, but our belief won’t change the truth an iota.

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About Paul Pavao

I am married, the father of six, and currently the grandfather of five. I teach, and I am always trying to learn to disciple others better than I have before. I believe God has gifted me to restore proper theological foundations to the Christian faith. In order to ensure that I do not become a heretic, I read the early church fathers from the second and third centuries. They were around when all the churches founded by the apostles were in unity. My philosophy for Bible reading is to understand each verse for exactly what it says in its local context. Only after accepting the verse for what it says do I compare it with other verses to develop my theology. If other verses seem to contradict a verse I just read, I will wait to say anything about those verses until I have an explanation that allows me to accept all the verses for what they say. This takes time, sometimes years, but eventually I have always been able to find something that does not require explaining verses away. The early church fathers have helped a lot with this. I argue and discuss these foundational doctrines with others to make sure my teaching really lines up with Scripture. I am encouraged by the fact that the several missionaries and pastors that I know well and admire as holy men love the things I teach. I hope you will be encouraged too. I am indeed tearing up old foundations created by tradition in order to re-establish the foundations found in Scripture and lived on by the churches during their 300 years of unity.
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6 Responses to The Chicken or the Egg?

  1. Unknown's avatar Jeremiah Briggs says:

    I like odd ball off topic posts I keeps things interesting. BTW: Perhaps the egg is Gods way of showing that all life originated with a single cell. As it still does today.

  2. Annonymous's avatar Annonymous says:

    So "Answers in Genesis would agree that chickens [micro] evolved." Not just "evolved" in the normal sense of the word. Breeding is further explained in footnote #5 of the AiG link: "Here’s one example: more than 200 different breeds of dogs exist today, from the miniature poodle to the St. Bernard—all of which have descended from one original dog “kind” (as have the wolf, dingo, etc.). Many other types of animals— cat kind, horse kind, cow kind, etc.—have similarly been naturally and selectively bred to achieve the wonderful variation in species that we have today. God “programmed” this variety into the genetic code of all animal kinds—even humankind! God also made it impossible for the basic “kinds” of animals to breed and reproduce with each other. For example, cats and dogs cannot breed to make a new type of creature. This is by God’s design, and it is one fact that makes evolution impossible" Thanks for the clarification.

  3. Annonymous's avatar Annonymous says:

    I don't think AiG would say all cats today coming from just two cats post-flood is evidence of "evolution" but of instead of "breeding." Breeding is observable science. Unless I've read their articles wrong. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/real

    • Paul Pavao's avatar shammahbn says:

      AiG uses the term "microevolution" as opposed to "macroevolution." Microevolution is true, they say, and macroevolution is false. So they don't mind using evolution for change "within a kind" or breeding.

      They just like to specify that it's microevolution.

      One of their pages has this sentence: "Microevolution, formation of races, is a fact."

      Another page has: "That is, the processes of mutation, selection, and sexual recombination all produce variation within kind (microevolution—or creationist adaptation) …" [parentheses in the quote are theirs].

      I'm not trying to stir up the creation-evolution debate in this post or these comments. It was just a fun talk about the chicken and the egg. I was trying to be careful to limit myself to what AiG agrees with.

  4. Paul Pavao's avatar shammahbn says:

    Btw, this is not really a Bible vs. evolution topic. Even Answers in Genesis would agree that chickens evolved. While they don't specify how wide a "kind" is, there is no doubt that they would say chickens, guinea hens, and a few other fowl probably all had a common descendant on the ark.

    They've suggested that there was only one cat on the ark from which all lions, tigers, jaguars, ocelots, and domestic kitty cats descended.

  5. Ed K's avatar Ed K says:

    If I believe in evolution, shouldn't the chicken come from a creature that is pre chicken? If that is the case, then does the chicken only become a chicken in the embyo or as it is affected by the environment? I guess you have to decide when you start calling the creature a chicken. This is very mysterious.

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