What came first, the chicken or the egg?

This position holds that the chicken came first, then laid the egg. It argues that life begins with a first living, breathing creature, so the mother that produced the egg must have existed before it — and, on a religious reading, that God created the animals fully formed at the beginning.

This position holds that the egg came first, and then hatched into a chicken. It argues that an egg is logically required to hatch a chicken, and that the science agrees — egg-laying animals long predate chickens, so eggs existed on Earth far before the first chicken did.

This position holds that neither the chicken nor the egg came first. It argues the question poses a false dichotomy and an essentially infinite sequence, with no true 'first' chicken or egg to identify—and that having no definitive answer is perfectly fine.