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2 total messages Started by Ed Conrad Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:32
THE EGG AND I -- Time-Honored Question Finally Answered.
#1399
Author: Ed Conrad
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:32
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Making the rounds of controversial and heated debate once again 
these days is that time-honored question: 
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>  WHICH CAME FIRST? THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG? 
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First, let's analyze the situation using some good ol' common sense. 
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UNDENIABLE FACT NO. 1: The chicken *couldn't* have come first 
before the egg because, according to the ground rules, there had
to be an egg from which to hatch the chicken. 
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Obviously, if there hadn't been an egg, there could *never* have been 
a chicken. 
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Since we all know chickens hatch from eggs. 
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UNDENIABLE FACT No. 2: The egg couldn't have come first -- before 
the chicken -- in this particular scenario because, according to the 
ground rules, there had not been a previous chicken to have laid the 
egg from which a chicken arrived via the conventional means of having 
been hatched from an egg. 
<
If a chicken, however, *didn't* lay that egg -- not necessarily the 
chicken in question, but a different chicken (even though the rules 
say there was *no* chicken around to lay an egg to make that chicken),
and without an egg there can be no chicken, since even numbskulls 
-- the brainwashed boys over at talk.origins, for example  -- are
aware that chickens come from eggs. 
<
Ditto for the chicken. Since there theoretically was no egg from which
the egg hatched to eventually become a chicken -- after first becoming
a chick. However, without an egg, logic dictates that there could not
have been a chicken (or, for that matter, an egg, since the egg in our
theoretical question was *still* an egg and had not yet become a
chicken).) 
<
But let's look at it from *another* less-complicated angle. 
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Say there was a chicken that *had* laid an egg that had become a 
chicken after hatching from the egg, but the evidence later clearly 
indicates that there had been no chicken around to lay any eggs from 
which the chicken had hatched to lay more eggs to hatch many more 
eggs to create many more chickens. 
<
The problem is compounded by the undeniable fact that the chicken 
in question, which under normal circumstances would lay some eggs, 
*did not* lay the egg that is subject of debate in "Which Came First? 
The Chicken or the Egg," since the egg -- at least in theory -- 
couldn't have been laid by that chicken (the chicken in question), 
unless of course the chicken had been around longer than the egg. 
<
However --and here it begins to get complicated -- in this particular 
situation, this particular chicken could not have come first --
*before* the egg -- since chickens come from eggs, and the egg could 
not have come first, since chickens have to be around to lay eggs that
eventually wind up as chickens who, in turn, lay more eggs to create 
more chickens. 
<
It stands to reason that the chicken could not have become a chicken 
if there was no (chicken) egg, and no egg could ever become a chicken 
if there hadn't been a chicken around to lay the egg that in turn 
would result in a chicken, whether or not this particular chicken -- 
which does not necessarily have to lay an egg -- would eventually lay 
more eggs to hatch more chickens. 
<
The only obvious answer -- other than creation or evolution --- is 
that the chicken must've been carrying the egg when it crossed the 
road -- the subject of that other brain-twister, "Why Did the Chicken 
Cross the Road?" -- meaning that the only reasonable answer to
"Which Came First: The Chicken or the Egg" is that it's a dead heat. 
<
Both obviously arrived at the first time, either the chicken carrying 
the egg or the egg containing the chicken or vice-versa, or 
versa-visa. 
<
The only remaining question is where both the chicken and/or the 
egg had come from, which is a bit more complicated than "Which 
Came First: The Chicken or the Egg? -- but that, too, will be easily 
solved, same as other great mysteries of life, if I have a day or two 
to think about it, and after consulting with my good friends Larry 
King, Stephen Hawkins and Howard Stern. 
<
Ed Conrad, Professor of Literature and Concise Writing
> Ediacara University
> http://www.edconrad.com
<
<  Man as Old as Petrified Eggs Found Between Coal Veins 
Re: THE EGG AND I -- Time-Honored Question Finally Answered.
#1401
Author: DGH
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 02:40
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The chicken is the way the egg figured out how to make another egg.
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