Which Came First: The Chicken or the Egg?
Copyright © November 1, 2019 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
My eight-year old grandson, Jace, visited us one weekend and he told us that his third-grade school teacher had asked his class the above question on Friday afternoon. He then said that their weekend homework assignment was to try and answer the question. He looked right at me as he was talking because he expected me to know the answer. I smiled at him and then I responded with the following explanation.
Discussion
The original question is a circular question because the following rebuttals can be made to either of the two standard answers:
- Answer: the chicken. Rebuttal: But where did the chicken come from?
- Answer: the egg: Rebuttal: But where did the egg come from?
Based on the above it would appear that this question does not have an answer.
On the other hand, this question can be easily answered by anyone who believes the story of creation as reported in the first book of the Holy Bible called Genesis. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, including all the plants, fish, birds, animals, and mankind. God created mature adult creatures that had their seed inside them. God did not create newborn babies and then take care of them until they grew up into adults. Instead God created mature adult creatures with their seed inside them so they could continue to multiply on their own. God created Adam as a mature adult and he created Eve as a mature adult. Adam and Eve had their seed inside them so they could have children, and those children would grow up and have children, and so on.
Therefore any person who believes in God and in creation would know that God created adult male and female chickens first and that those adult chickens had their seed inside them so that they could have baby chickens that would grow up into adult chickens, and this process would continue again and again and again.
Unfortunately a person who believes in the theory of evolution does not have a simple answer to the original question.
Conclusion
The chicken came first because God created mature adult male and female chickens when God first created chickens.
Respectfully,
Grandpappy.
Reference Scripture Verses
All Scripture Verses are from the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Holy Bible.
Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:11 - And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so.
Genesis 1:20 - And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens."
Genesis 1:24 - And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds -- livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so.
Genesis 1:26-28 - Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com