Cro-Magnon Man

I have had conversations with Ray-Ray, my little professor, that I never thought I would have with a seven year old. Ray has a preoccupation with all things prehistoric. This has gone on for about 75% of his life. I teach his CTR 8 class and it is very amusing at times (like the time Ray threw up because he saw another boy pick his nose and eat it and like the time another child in class heard the story of Moses and the fiery serpents and wouldn't stop yelling "Jesus and Heavenly Father are so mean!" until the whole class was in utter chaos). Anyways, once in class, Ray said "I know that Adam wasn't the first man. The Cro-Magnon Man was." This lead to one of the conversations I never thought I would have with a seven year old. I think there are a lot of adults that haven't had this conversation. I tried to reach back to my Evolution class at BYU, but my brain was foggy. Instead, I told Ray that I believed that Adam was the first man. He was the first man to have a body like God's and that God gave him a human spirit. However, God probably used natural ways to create his body. The Cro-Magnon Man, if he really was on the earth before Adam didn't have the same human spirit as Adam. He had a Cro-Magnon Man spirit which is very different from ours. I don't know if I'm right. I mean, who really knows how it all happened except God? But it seemed to satisfy Ray and I asked him to talk about this at home. I don't want parents to wonder what their kids are being taught at primary.

Later, I asked Ray to come weed the garden with me. While he and I were out there, just the two of us, he said "I'm having a hard time mixing science with religion." What?! You are seven! We then had long interesting conversation. I am not sure if everything that I said was truth because man can not know God's ways, but I told him some of the things I have come to believe (until there is further light on the subject). I told him that God uses natural processes, or science, to create the world and the creatures. Scientists come up with different theories about how it all happened and they try to make sense of our world but they leave God out. It is only possible to understand and make sense of the purpose of our existence with God. We talked about how amazing and perfect plants and animals are and it is proof of our Creator. We also talked more about the cave man (again the Cave Man!). I assured him that Adam was the first man that had a human spirit and that the cave man was different from us just like an animal's spirit is different from us and doesn't have the same purpose as we do. I don't know if I confused him more or not. I know I'm confused. If anyone has a better explanation, let me know.

Recently, Ray started talking again about the cave men. David started to tell him about the Neanderthals and that there is some scientific proof that they lived at the same time as man. I turned to David and gave him several warning looks not to go there. It would only confuse our little professor more. Sheesh, it confuses me!