“Mommy? How are dogs made?”
Uh.
“The same way babies are made…?”
“Oh.”
“Do you know how babies are made?”
“Yes. In an egg.”
“Well, kind of. The egg turns into the baby. The baby doesn’t grow inside the egg.”
“Right.”
“Like a chicken. A chicken grows inside an egg. And then it hatches.”
“Right.”
“Like, I’m talking about the eggs you eat. You realize that, right? I mean those aren’t chickens, but they could have been chickens.”
“Yeah. I know. Those eggs don’t turn into chickens because they keep the boy chickens, the roosters, away from the girl chickens, the hens. When they lay the eggs, the get taken away.”
Beat.
“Uh. Yeah. How did you know that?”
“My teacher told us.”
I pondered that one for a minute.
“She explained all of that to you in French, and you understood it?”
“No. She told us in English.”
Pause.
“Sometimes, if it’s really important, she’ll tell us in English.”
“Oh.”
“But Mommy, I want to know how the first dog got here.”
“The first dog?”
“Yes. How did the first dog get made?”
“Well, there are 2 theories on that. Some very religious people –”
“Jewish people?”
“Jewish people, Christian people, all kinds of people. Anyway, they believe that god made everything. And then other people, they believe in evolution. Do you know what evolution is?”
“No.”
So I did my best to explain the theory of evolution, and we talked about birds and dinosaurs and apes and people and cavemen and modern man. I explained about adapting to our environment, of slowly evolving over time.
And then I interrupted myself to add -
“But you know, some religious people also believe in evolution. The 2 beliefs can co-exist.”
A spontaneous eruption of laughter.
“NO!”
Unsure, I replied tentatively.
“Yes… What’s so hard to believe?”
“Evolution!”
“Wait a minute, in my explanation, did I somehow lead you to believe that god is the more reasonable option here?”
“Evolution! Ha!”
Wait. Let me start again…
That’s a great post! I, for one, think that both can coexist and not cause conflict.
Ellie recently asked, “Dad, if dogs can’t get married, how do we get puppies?” LOL
LMFAO!!!!!! Don’t let him talk to my husband. Then you’re screwed. Evolution! HA!
It’s OK, I’ll talk to him right after and set him straight
I love this. My son goes to a Catholic school so I keep finding myself explaining things like evolution as a counter to the creation story on the way home from the school bus. Or the notion of free will over Cheerios! That was a good one. But mostly I’m talking to myself, I think.
Let my kids talk to her…they’ll set her straight. On the eggs…and the evolution.