Which One Came First
Which one came first – chicken or egg, male or female, self determination or fate, energy or matter? These are the questions that only an advance civilization knows how to ask. Once the question is posted, it is a matter of time that it will be answered by our curious and thinking mind. When we begin to be aware of our surroundings, the world has already been populated with billions of living things whose diversity and complexity are beyond imagination and comprehension. But, by bits and pieces, through generations of tireless human intellectual pursuit, we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel in figuring out why the things the way they are. Which one came first may seem to be a simple question. But, it has taken 7000 years of civilization and accumulation of knowledge, and only recently, we are able to attempt to seek for an answer.
Chicken or Egg
We know that chicken is hatched from the egg and the egg is laid by the chicken. Without one there is no the other. Before we have come up with the knowledge of Archeology, Biology, Physiology, theory of evolution, etc., it is easier just to conclude that the chicken and egg were created by God and which one came first is irrelevant. Now, with the help of science, we are able to arrive at a more logical and reasonable picture as to whether it is the chicken or the egg came first. We understand that all the diverse forms of the living things are related – some closely, some remotely, some by a lot, some only minutely. These relationships can be traced to life’s humble beginning as a single cell around 3 billion years ago. Guided by the evolutionary process through mutations and changing environmental conditions, living forms with increasing diversity and functionality came into existence. Some had become extinct and only those that could adapt to the surroundings and the overall environment would flourish. The mutations that get pass down to the next generation occur only during the birth process. So, it is logical to conclude that egg came first to start the long journey toward a new unique species, the chicken. There is no question that reptile and mammal came from fish. The process was slow and took minute steps. It would take a billion year to witness how the fish evolved into the chicken.
Male or Female
Life started as a single-celled living thing. At fixed time interval, it divided and made a copy of itself. Before long, there was a large population of such single-celled living organism. However, there were not all identical due to the minute changes introduced by mutation. Soon, this population was divided into groups of distinct living things and populations of multi-celled living organisms would appear. However, life really started to diversify and filled the Earth with living forms as we see today as two different multi celled living organisms came together sharing their genetic information to form a totally new living thing. This process we call mating had been so successful for the survival of the living thing that it has not been changed for a billion year. It involves the mix and match of half of the genetic materials from the male and female of the same species. The result is the birth of a distinct member of the species with distinct mental and physical capabilities. Based on DNA sequencing and analysis, it is found that certain vital genetic materials (mitochondrial DNA comes from the egg only) can be found only in the female DNA. So, it is logical to conclude that female existed first at a time when living thing reproduced by itself.
Self Determination or Fate
No matter how hard a person tries and never to give up, whether a person is going to be successful or not in one’s endeavor in life is determined by forces that the person has no control of. But, if the person does not put up the effort, the chance of making it is zero. Just like the lottery ticket, if a person buys a ticket, even though the chance of winning the big one is slime, it is still better than none at all. The question is will the person’s effort and determination make a difference or is the person’s fate or destiny unalterable. No doubt, what a person does and chooses change things and most often, the lives of the other people. When a person is born, the DNA inside determines what the person is going to become and who the person can be. The environment that the person gets stuck in will influence what one does and what one can change. The fate is made up of the finite number of paths that are available for the person to travel through the life’s journey. Some paths are smooth and some are rough, and they all lead to a finite area that defines the person’s role in life.
Energy or Matter
We burn wood, coal, animal and plant oil for cooking, warmth, and generation of electricity. We drill for fossil oil, after refining, to be used to power car and plane. Without the energy from the matter, our civilization will not be in its present advance stage capable of sustaining a population of nearly 7 billion (and growing) people. During the process, the environment has been badly damaged and polluted by the excessive deforestation and excavation of the natural resources. But, it has given us time to understand how the sun burns matter cleanly and efficiently for billions of years. We know that tremendous energy is locked up in the nucleus of the matter. Only recently, we have developed the technology to release that energy safely and efficiently to generate electricity. With the knowledge of Physic and Astrology, we can observe that immediately after the Big Bang that caused the existence of space and Universe, matters were converted into energy and vice versa constantly, randomly, and continuously. Only after the Universe had cooled down, did the process cease with the most of the energy trapped inside the matters. So, in order to figure out which one came first – energy or matter, we have to see what happen right before the Big Bang. Since there was no space, it is logical to conclude that all the energy was confined into a single point of matter.
