God is a hermaphrodite and Adam & Eve didn't have bellybuttons

Toby and I have a little chat every night before he goes to sleep. We talk about his day and our plans for the following day and it's when I really learn what's going on in his head, what he's worried about, what he's excited about and generally what's on his mind.

Tonight he was telling me about a story he heard at school today about how God made a man named Adam, then took out his rib and used it to make a woman called Eve. Ah, the joys of church school. Now that Tobes is in Year 1 he'll start having religious studies every week. They start out with Christianity, it being a Church of England School, but as the children get older they'll learn about all the major world religions. I'm really pleased about this but since Jason and I are both atheists it does make for interesting conversations with Toby.

We generally take the approach of "Yes, that's what some people believe but other people think this or that but no one knows for sure." and end these discussions with "The important thing is to learn as much as you can, ask lots of questions and then decide what YOU believe when you're older."

Today's story at school (done with teddy bear puppets, I might add) was all about the creation of the world and the first people. Toby found it all very interesting but wanted to clarify a few points such as who was the Mommy of Adam and Eve. I explained that God made them as adults and they were never babies. Tobes thought about this for a while then said "So God must be half man and half woman because he had an egg and a seed to make people." I tried to explain the idea of a miracle and that God wouldn't necessarily need biology to make a person. Toby thought a bit longer and then said "So, if they were never in a Mommy's tummy they wouldn't have had belly buttons. That's weird." Oh the lovely sweetness of a five year old's mind.

We chatted for about half an hour about the forbidden fruit and the Garden of Eden and Toby explained that the teddy bear puppets had clothes on after they ate the fruit because they realised they were naked. We also talked about evolution just to balance things out but Toby decided that we couldn't come from monkeys because we don't have tails. Just before falling sleep Toby yawned a big yawn and whispered "It's all such a big mystery." I couldn't have said it better myself.