David Clark
Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?
by David Clark - February 10, 2009 - 11:12 PM

chicken-egg.jpgThe early Church Fathers, St. Thomas Aquinas, and many creationists today would tell you the chicken came first, because the Book of Genesis reveals that God created birds on the fifth day, along with sea monsters; and we can presume that these original birds emerged ex nihilo as full-fledged adults, or they wouldn’t have been able to “fly above the earth across the dome of the sky” (Gen 1:20). Just as Adam and Eve were never infants — and accordingly lacked navels — the first chickens never had to hatch.

The Indian Upanishads have it the other way around. They declare that a cosmic egg emerged from nonexistence, then split into the earth and sky and birthed the sun.

It’s clear that somebody’s wrong, but it’s not clear who.

Now, evolutionary biologists will tell you another thing altogether. Eggs came first, but not chicken eggs. Egg and sperm cells evolved a billion years ago, once primordial organisms had become too complex to copy themselves asexually. But we all know those eggs don’t count. So 300 million years ago, reptiles developed their own kind of external egg, with a leathery skin and an internal food supply. Their descendents the birds came onstage 100 million years ago with their own revisions of reptilian egg-technology.

Of course, these scientists have sidestepped the issue. They always do. The question is more philosophical, or metaphysical: which form produced the other, and to what end? One rich response comes from Samuel Butler, the Victorian writer and critic, who gave a lot of serious thought to the old joke that a chicken is just one egg’s way of making another egg — and he ended up suggesting that the egg lays the hen as much as the hen lays the egg. Those artistic types can be very unconventional.

If you insist on asking this question, you’ll just have to come up with your own answer: it certainly doesn’t matter much either way.

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Comments (15)

  1. it would just seem logical to me, from an evolutionary standpoint that the egg would come first, laid by the species that would become the modern domesticated chicken. Phenotype follow genotype, not the other way around – you can dress a pigeon up as a chicken, but its still a pigeon, the DNA has to change, and be genetically a chicken for the evolution to occur. so subtly over thousands of years, that DNA changed and one day an egg hatched from some now extinct bird, and a chicken was born

    posted by yahya m on 2-10-2009 at 11:32 pm

  2. Everyone knows the rooster came first.

    posted by el duderino on 2-11-2009 at 2:04 am

  3. This quesion is probably how parents teach children how to differenciate evolution from creationism without the religious or scientifical stuff.

    posted by Mr.Trivia on 2-11-2009 at 4:18 am

  4. A chicken and an egg are lying in bed. The chicken is passed out cold, while the egg lies smoking a cigarette with a look of anguish and mumbles: “Well I guess we answered THAT question…”

    posted by Chip on 2-11-2009 at 7:37 am

  5. I would think that the chicken would have to come first before such a thing as a chicken egg could be around.

    posted by Jonny on 2-11-2009 at 8:25 am

  6. corrections: its the Rig veda which describes the creation of the universe,not the upanishads.

    posted by Vivek on 2-11-2009 at 10:10 am

  7. I believe there are several creation stories in those old Indian books. But it is indeed the Chandogya Upanishad (3:19:1-4) that contains the story of the cosmic egg.

    posted by Adrienne on 2-11-2009 at 10:40 am

  8. Obviously eggs came before chickens. But if you’re asking if the chicken or the chicken egg came first, well, it depends what you mean by “chicken egg.” Is it anegg containing a chicken or an egg laid by a chicken. That being said, the first modern chicken was born of an egg laid by a very closely related ancestor by specifically not a chicken

    posted by Kevin H on 2-11-2009 at 10:41 am

  9. I once read an answer that made sense to me: The chicken came first, because the chicken is an “actual chicken” whereas the egg is a “potential chicken.”

    The theory went on to explain that since actual things exist, whereas potential things do not, the chicken came first.

    posted by Sandy Wood on 2-11-2009 at 11:03 am

  10. @Sandy- I think that explanation avoids the real question. The question is about the egg itself, (an “actual” thing, unless I ate a “potential” breakfast), not the potential within the egg.

    @Kevin- I think that’s the most accurate answer. Evolutionary change causes species differentiation. So draw an imaginary line somewhere and say “this is a proto-chicken, but this new one is a chicken” and decide for yourself whether the egg the chicken is hatched from is a proto-chicken egg or a chicken egg.

    posted by Jennings on 2-11-2009 at 12:01 pm

  11. The egg came first.

    A chicken egg will always yield a chicken.

    A chicken will not always lay a chicken egg.

    This is something that happens in species evolution. We could also use examples like the mule which is born from a donkey and horse. A creature can be born from a species that it is not, but it can not change it’s species once it has been birthed.

    posted by Nathan on 2-11-2009 at 2:56 pm

  12. There is one answer with 2 reasons. The egg came first. Reason 1: Evolutionary Biology Reason 2: Logic And egg is a potential chicken. A chicken is an actual chicken. Potentiality always precedes actuality.

    posted by Ralph Beatty on 2-12-2009 at 10:09 am

  13. The egg came first because you have eggs for breakfast and then you have chicken for lunch or dinner. This answer has about the same validity as any of the other answers.

    posted by Daniel Di Paolo on 11-7-2009 at 8:04 am

  14. According to Genesis 1:20-22 (King James Version)

    20And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

    21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

    22And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

    Therefore, chicken came first

    posted by Manuel Manago on 7-20-2010 at 6:03 pm

  15. I’m sorry, Ralph Beatty, but you’re way off. You twisted the words on the correct answer: An egg is a potential chicken and a chicken is an actual chicken. And since actuality SUPERCEDES potentiality, the chicken came first.

    posted by Jack on 8-23-2010 at 8:03 pm

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