The Chicken or the Egg?

Chicken and EggWhich came first, the chicken or the egg? The question has been discussed and debated for years. Scientists have used everything from supercomputers to the laws of quantum physics to obtain a definitive answer. In 2014, British scientists used a supercomputer to meticulously analyze a chicken egg. They discovered that a certain protein required in the formation of the egg came only from chickens, hence the chicken must have come first. Most of us would agree with this conclusion since we know for a fact that chicken eggs are produced only by chickens. We know this by simple observation but it is actually a scientific fact since the process is repeatable and observable.

While these facts may solve the old riddle for many of us, I read in a recent article that a group of quantum physicists have now done their own analysis and have concluded that the egg likely preceded the chicken. They point out that with quantum physics, cause and effect may actually be reversed. The article goes on to state that “chickens did not really start as chickens anyway” and that, “the very first chicken in existence would have been the result of a genetic mutation taking place in a zygote produced by two almost-chickens.”

This argument assumes that modern chickens evolved from “almost chickens” many thousands of years ago, and that since the genetic changes would have occurred in the zygote, then the chicken egg must have preceded the chicken. The conclusion is therefore based upon a theory rather than known facts. Evolution has not been proven and is therefore technically a theory.

Let us remember what we do actually know and can prove about chickens and their eggs: Birds (and other creatures) posses the innate ability to reproduce after their own kind. Whether one believes the Bible or not, this is exactly what it has affirmed about life for thousands of years. Genesis 1:21-23 specifically addresses birds as having this reproductive ability. (It should be noted that God made birds, fish, mankind and other creatures full-grown — not in their precarious embryonic states, Gen. 1:20-28). Along with this biblical fact, we have true scientific method which proves that chickens produce eggs. This process has been repeated and observed for thousands of years. We know with absolute certainty that the chicken came before the egg. Case closed.

—Tim Haile

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