In the Beginning...

The chicken or the egg...

Photo by Muhammad Syafi Al - adam on Unsplash

The other day, a good friend and I were out. We got in line, and I encouraged her to go first. The professional we were with sang out: “Which came first, the chicken or the egg.”

I looked straight at him and said, “It depends on whether you were a Creationist or Evolutionist.”

Blank stare.

I sighed.

“You see if you are an Evolutionist, the egg came first. Because some animal that was like a chicken, but not quite a chicken, laid an egg with a genetic mutation that we now call a chicken.”

Two blank stares.

“On the other hand, if you are a Creationist, then God created the chicken who then laid the egg. You see?”

“Yes, I do,” my friend said gently. “I just think it’s a little deep for the Costco checkout line.

She was probably right.  But I stand by my logic.

And it really got me thinking about where we all came from.

Father Mike Schmidt says in his Bible in a Year podcast (Ascension Press) that faith and science are really not in conflict because both are looking at the truth.

But what about creating the whole world in seven days?

But what if we aren’t talking about 24-hour, one-planet revolution kind of days? What if a better translation is “period of time.”

How would that work?

Well, in the beginning, God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And he separated the light from the darkness. And that was the first period of time.

Okay, well, our current best guess is that the Universe started with the Big Bang. And we know that the explosion caused light to shine for the first time in the void. Creating not only light but the absence of light or darkness.

That works.

Then God made the firmament and separated it from the heavens.

Well, after the Big Bang, atoms were attracted to one another and joined, creating substances that attracted more atoms until gas clouds, then meteorites, then meteors flew through the ever-expanding universe. The solids attracted more solids, and the gases attracted more gases, and both became separate from the void of space between them.

They became matter and the heavens.

This one kind of works too.

And the second period ended.

This is where things fall apart a little bit. But, what if, just for grins and giggles, we swapped day three and day four?

What if God used the third period to create our sun, planets, and moon? That would be the next step on the evolutionary timetable. Because after matter started to coalesce in the universe, the next step was for that matter to order itself into planets, suns, distant stars, and neighborly moons.

After this period of time, we have an empty planet revolving around a brand-new sun.

We know from geological data that plants were the first things to live on Earth. We have no idea how long plants reigned over the earth, but we know at some point, this period of time ended as well.

During the fifth period of time, God created sea creatures and birds. Does this stack up to science?

Duh. Why do you think I’m writing this?

In fact, we know that the first living creatures lived in the sea. Some of these creatures gave rise to dinosaurs, which we now believe were far more amphibious than land-based. And, not to make too fine a point, scholars now believe they are more closely related to birds than lizards.

So, that’s the fifth period of time covered.

It wasn’t until after the age of the dinosaurs that the myriad of creatures rose with whom we now share the planet. Humans, which are one of the later main species to evolve, can’t really be descended from one woman, Eve, can they?

Ummmm, hate to tell you this, but yes, we can. Everyone has at least one X chromosome. And, on that chromosome, we can trace the RNA of your mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, etc. It’s called “The Mother Gene.” (Sorry, guys. We can’t trace this through men since not everyone has a Y chromosome.)

Oddly enough, every single human being on the planet can trace their mother gene back to a single woman who was black and lived in Africa.

What made this human different? Opposable thumbs? Nope. Other animals have opposable thumbs. Using tools? Nope. Other animals use tools. Size of the brain? Nope. Other animals have far larger brains.

But this comes closest.

There was a mutation in the brain. We are different from other animals because our brains give us a lovely jolt of chemicals such as endorphins and dopamine when we solve problems. These chemicals make us feel good.

They make us constantly try to solve problems and puzzles.

It is also a complex mutation never seen in any other animal.

Now, it could have been just one mutated hominid. But current theory suggests that if just one parent had the mutation, it would have died out quickly. In all likelihood, both parents would need to carry the mutation to create a new evolutionary line.

So, was it a coincidence that a miraculous mutation occurred in two people of breeding age simultaneously? Or did God step in and change something?

Science and faith come together to ask this simple question:

Chicken, Egg, or something more?

Shellie Braeuner is an award-winning children’s author and teacher.