The Chicken Came Before The Egg

I apologize to my opponent and the readers of this debate for my forfeit. I was catching up on my sleep for the last week and I didn't realize I only had a day to respond. The way it usually works when there has been no specified rule laid out pertaining to forfeits is that the forfeiter loses the conduct vote, but other than that the debate proceeds as normal. As such I will refute my opponent's arguments below and lay out my own. #1 - Embryonic DevelopmentHere my opponent argues that because a chicken can only come from an egg, and an egg can only come from a chicken, the chicken must have been first. However this line of reasoning is easily refuted in that it takes us into an infinite regress. The egg came from a chicken, who came from another chicken, who came from another chicken, ad infinitum. The argument from embryonic development implodes in on itself. #2 - Evolutionary ThoughtI would provide sources to back my argument up but sources have been banned by my opponent. So I will attempt to refute this argument logically. He argues that according to evolutionary thought, the first chicken probably was an offshoot of another species and so had to come first before it began reproducing(producing eggs). However this argument actually works in my favor in that the first chicken(like all chickens) hatched from an egg. This is a distinction within birds. That they hatch from eggs. So the first chicken, using my opponent's A1, came form an egg. #3 - All Lines of Thinking Conclude Pro As to my opponent's argument from Creation by a divine being, I do not accept this nor am I arguing it. If my opponent is to argue it than he should support it with evidence. As to the argument from evolution, I responded to it above and showed that it works in my favor. #4 The Chicken as a MetaphorI will answer this argument later in my own case but I will briefly summarize it here. We are not speaking metaphorically. We are speaking in terms of reality. If my opponent argues that the chicken came first because a purple elephant told him, we are allowed to ask for more proof. So any "proof" that the chicken came before the egg must be substantiated with evidence. As to my opponent's pre-emptive answers to my own arguments, I will not respond to them because they do not follow the line of reasoning I will. Now on to the building of my case. I will only use one argument because I believe it is all that is needed to sufficiently prove my side in this debate. I do love syllogisms. Argument from an evolutionary bi-product P1: According to evolutionary theory, new species arise out of the gradual evolution of other pre-existing species as dictated by a combination of their environment and their specific genetic dispositions. I don't think my opponent will challenge this premise as it is simply an explanation of evolutionary theorie's explanation for the arising of new species. P2: Every living organism came from some other living organism, save the first living organism which most theorists believe to have arisen through "primordial soup" theory. This means that certain atmospheric and environmental conditions spontaneously generated a very primitive form of life, the conditions of which were used changing over the course of Earth's history so as to not allow new spontaneous generation of life. P3: Chicken's were not the living organism to arise through "primordial soup" theory. Chickens are a domesticated bird, meaning that they have not been around for more than a few million years. "Primordial soup" theory theorizes that the first primitive form of life formed a few billion years ago. Simply math shows that the first living organism could not have been a chicken. C1: The first chicken(in the sense of the first of the domesticated species) must have arisen from some other form of life, most likely from a slightly older bird similar in species to the modern chicken. --- From P1, P2, and P3. This means that the first chicken must have come from an egg. The egg does not necessarily need to come from another chicken, meaning that it was not the first chicken. And so it must have logically come from another similar species to the chicken, though distinct nonetheless. My opponent's arguments have been refuted and I have provided an argument of my own, showing that the egg did in fact come before the chicken.