Eitan and I talk about God a frequently. It’s already a somewhat combative discussion as I try to be honest while also providing traditional Jewish answers. Here is a recent conversation.
Eitan: “Mama did God make the oceans?”
Hannah: “That is the story in the Torah”
Eitan: “But what do you think?”
Hannah: “Well I think that’s just a story. Oceans are part of the world (I was not that eloquent but that is the idea).
Eitan: “I think people made oceans.”
Hannah (thankful for an easy one): “No, the oceans were around before people.”
Eitan: “Who made people?”
Hannah (wary): “What do you think?”
Eitan: “I don’t think God made people, the ocean did.”
Hannah (happy Torah and science contradict this): “no, the ocean did not make people.”
Eitan: “Who made people?”
Hannah (darn, back to that): “People descended from monkeys through a process called evolution.”
Eitan: “What’s that?”
Hannah: “The slow process of animals changing. We descended from monkeys.”
Eitan: “Really? Did we eat bananas?”