The chicken and the egg

[dvandom]

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

If you go in for most varieties of evolution, including theistic evolution, the answer is "the egg". Something that was not yet a chicken gave birth to a mutant egg that would become a chicken.

If you're a Biblical literalist, "the chicken". God created all life, and presumably made chickens rather than a bunch of eggs, else there'd be no parents to raise the chicks. Not as much of an issue in Eden, though, I guess.

If you're a Lysenko-style evolutionist, "the chicken". Something that wasn't yet a chicken acquired Chickentude and passed this onto its offspring.

If you've a penchant for dirty jokes, "the rooster had to come before there could be any eggs."

Comments

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

Technically, eggs are created without roosterian intervention all the time; they're the ones we get in the grocery stores from caged chickens. They're not fertile, but they're there.

[lord-xiphos.livejournal.com]

However, an unfertilized egg == no poultry

[sweh.livejournal.com]

There were dinosaur eggs long before chickens... the question is mis-stated.