Theos-Talk Archives (June 2002 Message tt00083)

> In the evolution of the animal kingdom, a question is posed to the
> scientist, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
>
> In the spiritual evolution of humanity, a question is posed to the
> disciple, "Which came first, the Teacher or the Teaching?
Monica:

There are a number of trick questions, which mislead
us into some form of circular thinking and a false
paradox. The question, "which came first, the chicken
or the egg," is one.

The question assumes that there are two events: (1) the
chicken hatching the egg and (2) the egg hatching and
a chick growing up to be the chicken. Asking "which came
first," assumes that one could come before the other.

But one cannot come before the other. They are co-dependent.
They are different points in time of the same cycle. There
is a single cycle of life that they represent. One cannot
exist without the other, even if they don't happen at the
same time.

Which came first? Neither. They both arose together as
a new cycle of life, a new manner of procreation by some
creature that later evolved into what we now know as a
chicken.

Asking "which came first" is something of a trick. It's
like a stage magician directing one's attention to his
right hand which quickly slipping something into the left.

I tend to look upon this and similar trick questions as
a test of our powers of discrimination. We need to
learn to discern when we're being told something useful
and when we're being misled. We need to refine our
abilities to sift truth out from the dross and develop
our ability to think things through ourselves, rather
than just relying upon everything that we're told from
others.

Two other trick questions :

(1) Zeno's paradox, where you get 1/2 of the way to the
wall, then you're 1/2 of the remaining distance, then
1/2 of the rest of the way, but never reach it.

(2) What happens when an irresistible force meets an
immovable object?

-- Eldon