Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

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What came first, the chicken or the egg? That is the first thought that came into my mind when the discussion of contingent and necessary beings came up. Of course, a chicken hatches from an egg that is laid by its mother chicken. But that means that another chicken had to first exist to be the mother chicken, hence the problem. This problem is what makes the chicken a contingent and not a necessary being. Something had to exist or cause the “first” chicken or the “first” egg to exist before the chickens themselves could reproduce into the billions of chickens that there are on earth today. Whatever caused or created or evolved into what we now call chickens, could have been a done so by another necessary being. However, at some point in the chain, there would have to be some kind of necessary or self-created being that started it all. I of course, and a lot of other people, call this supreme or necessary being God. We find purpose in our existence through being his creation and fulfilling our purpose in life through him. I personally find joy in having what I would call a purpose or meaning in my existence here on earth because I believe in God.  Russell does not believe this. In fact, in the video he says, “the notion of the world having a cause is a mistake. I don’t see why one would expect it to have (a cause)”. This to me is a very sad statement. I personally would find it hard to go through life without having what I call a greater overall purpose. Fr. Copleston defends searching for meaning by using several examples, one of which is an example of a detective searching for a cause or motive in a murder case. While I don’t think this is a great example, it certainly is true for as far as searching for meaning goes. Russell responds a little later after the examples by saying “Looking for causes doesn’t mean they are there”. HMMMMM this seems to be familiar. I feel as if I have read something similar before. This statement is almost like an answer to the question: Does everything that happen, happen for a reason? And where does everything that happens happen for a reason? Only in the best of all possible worlds my friends. ;)

P.S I commented on Ty and Olivia's 

Comments

  1. Will BradyFebruary 1, 2018 at 5:22 PM

    I've seen a lot of atheistic reasons as to where we came from... Some theories say we formed from the remains of an old universe, others say matter was created when energy cooled and condensed. They all have that one flaw you pointed out: every one of them demands something preexisting, and we still can't find the origin of that, either. The ultimate answer is GOING to be supernatural--defined matter and energy appearing and forming from nothing, a strict violation of the law of conservation of matter and energy--whether we like it or not. If you believe there's an origin, you believe the supernatural. A Deity is the next logical step. It's not hard to see why Russell didn't even want to think about the cause of existence.

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  2. UnknownFebruary 2, 2018 at 11:49 AM

    I agree, Zelda, I also find great joy in being able to attribute purpose and meaning and beginning to our Necessary, Supreme Being- God. Personally, I think it takes much more faith to believe in complete ambiguity, quite possibly coming from nothingness, when Intelligent Design is experienced daily.

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 2, 2018 at 10:20 PM

    I think some people just find it hard to accept that the sole purpose in their life is to worship an entity that we can't see or completely understand.

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