THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG While reading Lucretius, I came across a new twist on the old controversy that centers around the chicken and the egg. Theists have a hard time believing that the world could simply be here as the result of random processes forever operating throughout the vastness of the universe. They have to believe that it was somehow made by a great big Mind residing in some heavenly architectural firm. They especially can't believe that so-called intelligent creatures like ourselves could simply evolve from non-intelligent matter. No way. To them, another Intelligence had to have made us. That's where the chicken-and-egg thing comes in. Pretend for a moment that you don't know about chickens (or any other kind of animal) hatched from eggs. Suppose further that you do know some simple logic, like A equals B, or A does not equal B and so on. Now, say you come upon an egg (not knowing what it is, remember) and then a chicken, or a lizard or whatever. Not knowing about the connection, you have no intuitive reason to make one. They appear to be two completely different sorts of things. Imagine your surprise when you learn the association. You came across two objects (A and B) and naturally thought that A was not equal to B. Upon learning about the relationship, however, you suddenly feel justified in thinking that A is indeed equal to B, and vice versa. The logic is simple. If A equals B, then B equals A. But A doesn't appear to be at all like B. It appears to be non-sentient, a mere object, while B on the other hand appears to be a rather complex object, walking around all over the place, searching for food, exploring its environment and so on. In spite of your intuitive feeling that the two objects were completely different things, your sense of logic convinces you that -evidently- they are not. A non-sentient thing gave rise to a sentient one. A sentient (sensing) creature came (evolved, if you will) from a non-sentient (virtually inanimate) thing. It's right in front of you if you care to look at it. The sentient can indeed arise from the non-sentient. And if it happens in such a simple way as a chicken coming from an egg, there is no reason to believe that it can't happen in more complex ways. Whether we like it or not, humans can indeed come from non-humans. Or perhaps I should say that human stuff can evolve from non-human stuff. I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover Where Did Everything Come From?
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