Vertical Questions Do Not Have Horizontal Answers

Prior to the 20th century, the spiritual literature and knowledge of India was restricted from common eyes, access being a privilege reserved for the learned priest class. Sri Swamiji Chinmayananda, a renowned 20th century Hindu sage, had the audacity to take the Hindu scriptures directly to the people (www.chinmayamission.org). In doing so, Swamiji was an eastern counterpart of men like Voltaire and Diderot in the west, men who worked to bring higher knowledge to the people so the people could make their own decisions. All three men spent time in prison for their efforts.

Implicit in the struggle to take higher knowledge to the people (both east and west) is the belief that the world would work better if the people were provided adequate access to higher knowledge so they could make their own decisions and achieve personal empowerment. In other words, these efforts were part and parcel of the path to democracy in America two centuries ago, and they are part and parcel of the path to democracy in India today. On second thought, they still remain part and parcel of the path to democracy in America, given the corporate takeover by our CEO Bush administration.

In one of his lectures discussing God, Swamiji asked a young student the age-old question as to "what comes first, the chicken or the egg?" With the student's reply, Swamiji smiled: "So, eggs come from hens, hens come from eggs, which again come from other hens, and so on, ad-infinitum. Can you say with any certainty, which was the first cause? Egg or hen?"

Swamiji then looked at his audience and concluded, "That which is beyond the point at which the intellect gets stalled ... is G-O-D. The intellect cannot come to a conclusion as to the ultimate cause as in the age-old example of the hen and the egg. `Thus far -- not farther' is the limitation of the capacity of the human intellect" (www.5msolutions.com/inspir4.htm).

The point is seemingly well made, but the only limitations of the human intellect are self-imposed and typically a function of the nature of the questions we ask (which reflects how we are looking at the world). If the questions we ask make no sense, neither will the answers we claim to find. Looking at the world through a tiny keyhole allows questions to be asked that do not make sense when looking at the world through the open front door. Conversely, looking at the world through an open front door allows questions to be asked which cannot even be appreciated when looking through a keyhole.

There are, however, ways to answer the chicken and egg question that come closer to the science of it. Consider, for example, the wisdom that comes from America's farmland. Ben Logan, one of America's preeminent historians of the family farm, recalls his personal experiences in "The Land Remembers" (Creative Publishing International, 1999, ISBN: 1559717181).

As a youngster collecting the family's eggs from the chicken coop one day, Ben returned to the house to ask his mother the question he had heard posed days before in school, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

"She didn�t laugh. She thought about it for a moment and said, 'Neither.' She went over to my blackboard, next to the kitchen range, and drew a circle. �The chicken and the egg are both part of the same circle of life,� she said.

�Oh,� I said. I went back out and finished gathering the eggs. A circle was certainly better than a line. A circle stayed right where you could see it.

The next day at school I had a hard-boiled egg again and one of the boys asked me which came first. He started laughing.

�Neither one came first,� I said. I picked up a stick and drew a circle on the soft ground. �The chicken and the egg are part of the same circle,� I said with great authority.

�Oh,� the boy said.

Everyone sat there looking at the circle. No one ever brought up the question again."

In this answer to the chicken and egg question, there is no discussion of the limitations of knowledge. Merely pointing out the circular, horizontal nature of the chicken and egg relationship was adequate explanation. But, Ben continues, as the philosopher that he is:

"There�s something about a circle that puts a stop to things. Maybe that�s all that philosophers really do - just bend the straight lines into circles, the lines coming back to meet each other so there aren�t any loose beginnings or endings any more."

That, of course, is precisely what philosophers do.

To conclude that the chicken and egg question demonstrates a limitation of the human intellect is simply not the case. That would be to set unnecessary limitations on the human intellect and on human relationships with God. Defining God as that which we cannot know is to separate God from the people, an approach that departs from the values of natural philosophy and democracy and, in doing so, departs from God as well.

From the perspective of postmodern natural philosophy, that which we cannot know has little, if anything, to do with God, because it is of no concern or relevance to the will of the people. That which we cannot know is knowledge that is useless. In truth, there is nothing about God worth knowing that we cannot ultimately know. Conversely, we can know everything about God that we ultimately need to know.

Swamiji's conclusion was made to exemplify apparent limitations of the human intellect. But, the intellect is not limited by that which is not knowledge. The intellect thrives on these "limitations" because they indicate that the intellect is asking the wrong questions. Watch what happens to Swamiji's conclusion in the light of postmodern biology and natural philosophy.

First, we must realize that the terms "hen" and "chicken" are technical terms from human cultural evolution that do not relate directly to the biology of wild fowl. Rather, these terms specify a wild fowl designated to become a domestic farm animal. The first "chicken" emerged on earth sometime around 2,500 B.C. in India, not as a result of mutation and selection (the red-combed wild jungle fowl, Gallus gallus, emerged that way), but as a result of the humans who first chased down Gallus gallus and put it in an enclosure allowing collection of eggs. Eureka, the first "chicken" was born, already fully grown, ready and able to lay eggs for breakfast.

The first chicken did not emerge as a result of biological evolution. The first chicken emerged as a result of cultural evolution, part of the larger emergence of agriculture that began about 10,000 years ago. The first chicken (followed by the first chicken egg) was born of human free will and, as always, human necessity.

Since that time, every single strain of "chicken" on earth, from White Leghorns to Rhode Island Reds, has come from that one genomic pool, the entire Gallus genome having been mapped and traced through domestic strains. The evolutionary path of Gallus gallus, from a given point in time, can be traced both backwards and forwards, from the BC era (i.e.,Before Chickens) all the way to batter-fried "buffalo" wings.

All biological evolution since "The Great Gallus Captivity" has been directed by the hand of man, customizing and speeding up evolution by selective breeding followed by human selection for desired traits. It represents working with God, as co-Creators, in extending the creative work of God. In terms of a global phenotypic (material) and genotypic (informational) presence on earth, Gallus gallus did a lot better after human intervention than before.

The age old "chicken and egg" dilemma exists because we are trying to answer what is conceptually a vertical question (i.e., where did chickens come from?) with a horizontal answer (i.e., they come from an egg which comes from a chicken). We are trying to answer what is conceptually a spiral question with a circular answer. In other words, some questions refer to horizontal and some to vertical natural processes and they must be answered accordingly. Some questions refer to linear processes and some to circular processes and they must be answered accordingly.

The chicken and egg can be seen to exist in a continuous horizontal cycle - as do the seasons of the year, the plantings of spring, the harvests of autumn, and the washing of dishes. These natural cycles comprise the circular conceptual world of the traditional Oriental ethical systems, providing for their closeness to these earthly realities. In complementary contrast, alpha (beginning) to omega (end) timelines comprise the linear conceptual world of the traditional Occidental religious systems. Neither the east or the west has it quite right.

The Eastern view tends to see the egg as part of a never-ending cyclical process with no where in particular to go. The Western view tends to see the egg as an alpha to omega sort of thing. This is not to imply that the death of a chicken and the death of an egg are the same thing. In the western linear world, the death of a chicken is a MacChicken� sandwich and the death of an egg is an omelet.

In molecular biologic terms, the emergence of the genus Gallus gallus was the result of a natural, creative evolutionary process running from hollow-boned reptiles to birds, with external reality ultimately selecting for a red-combed jungle fowl. The emergence of the first "chicken" was part of a natural, creative human intervention that resulted in the global dissemination of the Gallus gallus gene pool. For over four generations on rural American farms and ranches, the "cock-a-doodle-doing" of this highly-evolved bird from India announced the morning sun and another day in the western agricultural cycle.

In the Oriental world, the circle certainly did put a stop to things. The east today still lives under Confucianism (authoritarianism) and Buddhism (acceptance). In the Occidental world, the line from alpha to omega seems determined to put a stop to things in a prophetic "end of time," an end of the line. The west today still lives under Judaism, Old Testament Romanism and Islamism (authoritarianism). Most people around the world are yet under someone else's authority and very few are able to exercise their own authority as citizens of a democracy. They want, in general, to do so.

Within evolutionary viewpoints, the age old question of "What came first?" (the chicken or the egg), fades into the same oblivion as the question "Who's on first?" In the world of natural philosophy, the overall evolutionary program does not go around in circles and it does not go in a line from beginning to end. The larger evolutionary program just continues on, as if life had a mind of its own.

Life does have a mind of its own, and it is to be found in the people. The cultural evolutionary program, in which all people are currently embedded, integrates all lines and all circles into a logarithmic spiral in time, the end goal being human unification, human maturation and self-comprehension (Systematic Evolution and Life on the Whole, Axis of Logic, January 5, 2005).

Logarithmic spirals in time are established by an evolutionary program that knows nothing of beginnings and endings. That larger human program embraces all beginnings and endings, to "bend the straight lines into circles, the lines coming back to meet each other so there aren�t any loose beginnings or endings any more."

The only thing that biological evolution knows is Life, constantly driven by the inner biological will and need to make manifest the creativity of God in all things. The only thing that cultural evolution knows is Life, constantly driven by the inner cultural will and need to better know the works of God and to better know Jefferson's God, i.e., "the will of the people," by better knowing our world and each other (Jefferson's Jesus, Jefferson's God, Axis of Logic, March, 2005).

� Copyright 2005 by AxisofLogic.com

Dr. Gerry Lower is an Axis of Logic columnist and this past year has relocated from Black Hills, South Dakota to Eugene, Oregon. His book, Jefferson's Eyes, has become a favorite among Axis of Logic readers. It provides a logical derivation of the values of natural philosophy, nascent Christianity and democracy. Dr. Lower also has a website where more of his work can be enjoyed on subjects of global philosophy, Deism, dialectic human values, democracy and Jeffersonian thought. He can still be reached at tisland@blackhills.com.

Read his biography and additional articles.