Chicken or the Egg

What came first—the chicken or the egg? The answer makes all the difference. This question, although possibly once about the actual chicken and egg, has become largely metaphorical. It speaks to those relationships where you cannot have one without the other. You take away the egg and you have no chicken. Take away the chicken and there is no egg.

I think that this metaphor applies to another relationship—belief and knowledge. Since the 17th century and Descartes there has been an unbalanced answer to the question of which came first, belief or knowledge. Descartes said famously (paraphrased) “I think therefore I am.” In other words, Descartes had knowledge that he thought and therefore believed that he existed. Knowledge came first.

Ever since this revelation, the Modern Era obsessed over finding these rational (obvious to everyone in all places and circumstances) streams of knowledge from which they could warrant belief. As you can imagine, God did not fare too well. Nothing fared well, actually—including Descartes. Efforts to discover this sort of absolute or universal knowledge (centuries later) proved itself to be futile.

Consequently, the Postmodern Era has largely abandoned these Modern efforts to discover universal knowledge of truth. There has been a move away from attempts to simplify our complex world to embracing the world’s complexities. What does this mean for the age old Chicken and Egg metaphor? It means that belief is making a comeback.

It turns out that our knowledge (scientific, philosophical and otherwise) is based upon how we believe ourselves to be in relation to ourselves, our environment, our universe and others. Consequently, if one were to take away belief then we would have no knowledge of the world in which we live. Likewise, if one takes away knowledge then we have nothing in which to believe.

So what does this mean for the Christian? It means quite a lot probably. No longer does the world ask us to prove God’s existence (unless of course someone is still operating in Modern Era categories of knowledge). Since the world has freed the Christian from such a dilemma I think that it is fair for the Christian to concede something as well. I actually don’t think that a Christian has a choice.

It is time to stop claiming absolute knowledge about God and the world. Yes, I said it. I am not the first. Rather than attempting to continue to defend ourselves against Modern Era accusations, that forced us to try to prove God’s existence in some universal fashion, we need to embrace our knowledge as based upon belief.

Does this leave us unable to defend God? Maybe. There are people out there who will never know anything because they cannot commit to believing something. It is time for all of us, Christian or not, to move into the overwhelming complexities of our relationships to the world, to our selves, to God and to others and attempt to make meaningful connections.

The question of ‘Why believe’ is still important—it is increasingly important. We should believe (it is necessary to our survival) so that we may know. We should continue to seek scientific, philosophical, relational and other forms of knowledge (it is of utmost importance) so that we can continue to form our belief. We cannot separate the Chicken from the Egg any more than we can separate Knowledge and Belief. Consider, finally, a couple verses from the Bible that know this all too well.

Hebrews 11:1-3 (my paraphrase): Now faith, the act of trusting through belief, is the assurance, the knowledge, of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…by trusting we understand that the universe was created through God’s voice…

Romans 1:19-22 (English Standard Version): For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…

It would do all of us a great deal to revisit the inseparable relationship between Knowledge and Belief. The preverbal rabbit hole goes as deep as the Chicken and the Egg.

So, Christians, on a side note, as we share our faith with others lets not assume that the most important things are cognitive efforts to solidify proper knowledge. We must make sure that we give attention to issues of trust and the relational, psychological, emotional and sociological factors that shape the act of trusting through belief. It is these factors that are largely overlooked as many of us continue in the path of Descartes.

For the next Chicken or the Egg post click here.