Theblogogy - The Blog of Theology and Questions

The Blog of Theology and Questions

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

The Chicken or the Egg?



This content is ripped largely from C.S. Lewis' "Two Lectures" essay in God in the Dock. But the general idea is something I've been thinking about for a while, and ties in nicely with our discussion of Abiogenesis vs Common Descent.

In general, we think of things progressing. Prehistoric man etched scratches on cave walls which have been eclipsed by today's artistic masterpieces. This line of reasoning certainly makes sense, but are we really more wise, skilled, intelligent than someone 50, 100, 10,000 years ago?

No. In fact, each element -- a society, a piece of art or technology, an idea -- begins rather imperfect. Over time, these develop, but they do not spring forth full-formed. Babies come from adults. These babies do, in fact, grow up to be adults, but they started from the fully mature parents and only gradually became adults themselves. Thus, the "chicken or the egg" question is answered equally well by either starting point.

But we can't stop there. For the question of origins and beginnings begs the question of which came first. The trouble is that all our current knowledge and observations tell us that chickens come from eggs which are laid by chickens. In short, all our scientific knowledge tells us that whatever started it was beyond the scope of the every day, natural order of things. It was, in a literal sense, supernatural (or, perhaps, subnatural, springing from an element deeply embedded in nature that does this on occassion -- the magical DNA everyone keeps talking about).

Thought that was cool. What do you think?

 ~Luke
Theblogogy

P.S. And, yes, I can google. I am aware of this video which asks specifically about the literal chicken / egg combo. But the idea is bigger here ... or smaller (depending on how you define things).

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