chicken or egg

So I’m getting a little tired of this seemingly expanding chicken/egg mentality.

You know the drill… Which came first? The chicken or the egg? It’s the causality dilemma connecting two processes, where the first process is understood to be partly responsible for the second.

In the proverbial pondering, no less, as to whether the fowl or its ovum was the first to exist, this question originally evoked in regard to how life began has been seemingly perverted to allow for an onslaught of lesser things…

Who first started the name calling?
Who first started the disrespect?
Who first lied?
Who first posted a flippant rant on Facebook?
Who first disregarded the opinion of another?
Who first infringed on the rights of someone else?
Who first failed to limit their spending?
Who first quit listening to the totality of their constituents?
Who first justified arrogance?
Who first believed that narcissism was an acceptable trait?

My point is that we often justify less than admirable behavior in ourselves or in others because someone else did it first — because some so-called “chicken” already existed.

My sense is that we would be a far wiser people group if we recognized that the answer to the question — which came first: the chicken or the egg — doesn’t matter. Whether or not the chicken or the egg was here first or even always existed does not change what’s right or wrong. Neither gives us license to behave in ways that are less than admirable…

There is no justification for lying…
No justification for disrespect…
No justification for withholding kindness…
No justification for disavowing empathy…
No justification for narcissism…

No justification.

Friends, this may be arguably the boldest statement the Intramuralist has ever put in print, but I believe it to be true: morality is not relative. What’s right or wrong and our code of ethics is not dependent on the people around us. “Everyone’s doing it” or “he did it first” is an insufficient justification that intelligent people get by with using way too often; it doesn’t make sense. It isn’t ethical and it is not wise. No one else is responsible for my bad behavior; “the first process” should not be “understood to be partly responsible for the second,” so-to-speak.

Still, for centuries people have continued to ponder the question: which came first? Aristotle concluded that both the bird and egg must have always existed. Plato concurred.

 And truthfully, as I imagine the animals peacefully paraded, one-by-one in front of Adam in the Garden of Eden — with Adam being given the unprecedented opportunity to name each amazing creature — I can’t see the great big God of the universe holding up some indiscriminate egg, saying, “So what’s this?” Hence, in my definite, limited reasoning, the chicken most certainly came first. 🙂

But the reality is that my opinion doesn’t matter. Whether the chicken came first doesn’t matter; in other words, such doesn’t have any affect on how we are called to behave now…

… as what is good and right and true does not depend on any who came or behaved poorly before.

Respectfully…
AR