Poll: The Chicken or The Egg

[Humble Grapefruit]

Which came first?

 

[Kapol]

I remember reading somewhere that this was actually proven scientifically, but I can't remember which it was. I think it was the chicken, but I could be wrong.

 

[Mrrrgggrlllrrrg]

Chicken because if I recall correctly the chicken egg requires a certain protein that hardens the shell. I'll need to dig up the article though so stay tuned folks, the riddle has been answered.

 

[King Toasty]

Egg. They've been around much, much longer than chickens.

If you're talking about chicken eggs specifically, than... chickens, because the first chicken would've hatched from a nonchicken egg, but THEN laid a chicken one.


Hmmm. Tough.

 

[Grell Sutcliff]

the egg creatures that laid eggs existed before chickens.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I've got a better question:

What came first - time; or matter?

 

[martin's a madman]

I remember reading somewhere that this was actually proven scientifically, but I can't remember which it was. I think it was the chicken, but I could be wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_or_the_egg#Science Here ya' go.


We can't define 'chicken egg' as an egg laid by a chicken, because evolution would ensure that the possibility that an egg laid by a 'chicken' would hatch into a 'non-chicken' would exist. Which means we have to define 'chicken egg' as an egg out of which a chicken comes.

Which means, the chicken egg comes first. It was laid by an organism decidedly 'non-chicken' but hatched a chicken.

I've got a better question:

What came first - time; or matter?

Time.

Matter is congealed energy, a process which requires time.

So, whether energy or time came first could make an interesting question, matter is something that came afterwards.

 

[freakinghostboy]

well first came the chicken, then came time, then the egg then matter

 

[DragonFae]

If I could, I would have voted for neither, as it was the ancestor of the chicken that came before both the chicken and the chicken egg. But if we're just talking eggs in general, it came first. So I voted egg.

 

[Humble Grapefruit]

So, The Egg was first; however, The Chicken Egg came after The Chicken.

 

[Redingold]

It's slightly a question of semantics. Is a chicken egg an egg that was laid by a chicken, or is it an egg that contains a chicken? In the first case, then the chicken must have come first, and in the second case the egg. The second one makes more sense to me, so I'll stick with it.

You can't really specify a point at which a proto-chicken becomes a chicken, but if that point could be specified, then at that point a proto-chicken creature would have laid an egg containing genetic material of enough similarity to a modern chicken to be classified as chicken, and thus the egg came first.

Of course, under Lamarckian evolution, then a non-chicken creature could acquire characteristics in its lifetime that turn it into a chicken, in which case the chicken comes first.

 

[baconsarnie]

I've got a better question:

What came first - time; or matter?

Neither, for all intents and purposes. A timeful but matterless universe would be indistinguishable from nothingness. Matter without time just makes no sense.
OT: chicken

 

[TheTechnomancer]

Well I'm religious so i believe that the chicken would have come first as it was created by god. We know it wasn't created as an egg because god created animals in full form e.g. Adam and Eve were never childeren as they were created as adults.

 

[stefanbertramlee]

The egg as it would have the genetic mutation that would define it as a chicken before that of an adult chicken.

 

[BoredDragon]

Does it matter? They both become food eventually >

 

[Mrrrgggrlllrrrg]

Well article links time and my horrible attempts at humor!

Chicken [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38238685/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/which-came-first-chicken-or-egg/]

HA! You see that of course the chicken came first, oh what is that? The egg could have come first, pfffft thats silly you little filly where's the source?

Egg [http://articles.cnn.com/2006-05-26/tech/chicken.egg_1_chicken-eggs-first-egg-first-chicken?_s=PM:TECH]

So the egg came first then and the chicken lays eggs of chickeness?


Is this the end? nope cause get this people dont define the egg or the context.

So ultimately kids it is just a fun but pointless question. Some neat things come from it by overthinking and thats the magic of life, learn new stuff every single day from what you normally wouldn't.

 

[Terminate421]

I remember reading somewhere that this was actually proven scientifically, but I can't remember which it was. I think it was the chicken, but I could be wrong.

You are correct believe it or not.

Egg shells are made of protiens that can only come from a life form, in this case the chicken.

 

[Dags90]

Chicken because if I recall correctly the chicken egg requires a certain protein that hardens the shell. I'll need to dig up the article though so stay tuned folks, the riddle has been answered.

That article really doesn't answer the riddle at all. Shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia:

Professor Mark Rodger and Dr David Quigley, from the University of Warwick, who helped develop a recent study with colleagues from Sheffield University, point out that in fact a key chicken protein, ovocleidin-17, which helps in the formation of the egg's hard shell, actually comes both before and after the egg shell. They say that this chemical quirk actually makes the question of which came first even more pointless than before.

The best answer was given by Luna Lovegood, "A circle has no beginning".

 

[Mrrrgggrlllrrrg]

That article really doesn't answer the riddle at all. Shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia:

The best answer was given by Luna Lovegood, "A circle has no beginning".

I'm very horrible with trying to put sarcasm into text.

I will say shamelessly I did put a post later that clarified with blatant silliness. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.298836-Poll-The-Chicken-or-The-Egg#11863312]

I just like to side with the chicken cause I like the philosophy of fried chicken rather than the theory of egg preparations.

 

[Stammer]

I think logically it would have to be the egg. This is the way I think of it:

1. The ancestor of the chicken was not a chicken yet.
2. The ancestor laid an egg, which was a mutant of the ancestor.
3. The mutant of the ancestor was an evolved chicken egg.

Therefore, the egg had to have come first. You can't evolve without reproduction, and the chicken's ancestor didn't magically transform into a chicken. Consequently the very first "chicken-related thing" must have been the egg.