Sitemap
PenPal

Our aim is to inspire you through timeless publications (essays, poems, short stories, etc.).

Follow publication

Member-only story

Why the Chicken or Egg Causality Dilemma is Outright Wrong

6 min readDec 2, 2018

--

Source

The chicken or egg causality dilemma has baffled philosophers and scientists alike for thousands of years. This age-old circular reasoning revolves around the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. So which came first?

Philosophical writings from Plutarch, Aristotle, and Macrobius are replete with evidence of their failed attempts to establish a cause and effect. These philosophers never really resolved this enigma; nonetheless, they noted that the question was not to be taken lightly.

The religious resolution is straightforward and pinpoints the chicken as the first in this revolving loop –– a solution that derives directly from the origin story in the Bible.

The scientific explanation is also very clear at face value until close scrutiny. The widely accepted inference goes something like this: a birdlike creature similar to the modern chicken laid a fertilized egg that had an identical DNA to the modern chicken.

In other words, some chicken-like creature produced an egg containing a bird with the genetic makeup of the modern chicken due to some mutation. This description seems to be an attempt to duck the infinite regression (cause and effect) nature of the problem.

--

--

PenPal
PenPal

Published in PenPal

Our aim is to inspire you through timeless publications (essays, poems, short stories, etc.).

Sylvester Amponsah
Sylvester Amponsah

Written by Sylvester Amponsah

I am not a role model. I dare not play a role for anyone. I am a real model — flawed and fallible.

Responses (6)