I was on my way to a new church on Sunday night. I hailed a taxi and started a conversation with the driver. He was probably around 60 years old, Iraqi, traveled extensively and had a lot to say. We started talking about religion, a consequence of him asking what I was doing in Sydney.
"Religion is a private practice," he said, "It is personal and should not be practiced outside the home." He then explained his theory of evolution and the existence of man for 4 million years. Organized religion, according to him was created ten thousand years ago and caused confusion, strife, division and death.
I just listened to him and asked him leading questions. He obviously loved to talk and I like to listen. As a Muslim, his line of thought was actually quite refreshing and he made some valid points in the case against religion. Then again, there were plenty of holes in his argument, but I was more interested in learning about his experience, rather than debating his intellectual understanding.
Our's is an age of expression. We want someone to listen to us. Blogs, tweets, facebook status updates, sms, phone calls, coffees, etc. The phrase, express yourself, has taken new dimensions and given freedom to thoughts and ideas that would have been controversial a decade ago.
But, I still find a ten-minute face to face conversation with a stranger teaches me way more than hours of mindless trawling through the net.
