conversing

So yesterday this guy from U of I who is studying in Leeds (a city of about 700,000 about 20 minutes by train from York) came to visit. He just kinda wanted to see the historic York and get away from the business of a pretty massive city for a while. I had only met Dan once or twice before, and he seemed like a pretty nice guy. So we met up for a drink. He said he would like to see a classic "cellar pub" of which there are several in York, and they are pretty cool places. Being a good-sized city, Leeds has more clubs than proper pubs, so it's a bit of a change (York has 365 pubs, the selection's not bad). We went to this place that is very literally a cellar, like you sit in one of three subterranian tube-like cellars made of brick. It's very cool. So we sat and talked there for several hours. We seem to be the same kind of person, people who like to just chill and talk, but not preferably just small talk, meaty conversation. So soon enough the talk turned to politics, as is commonly the case when Americans get together here, as we're pretty consistently being targeted for some mild America-bashing by the students here - nothing outrageous, just lighthearted cheap-shots at the good 'ol U S of A. It's fun stuff. So we're talking and of course for me, if you've ever talked to me about politics you know, it's hard for me to really talk about it without saying that my views are at least slightly influenced by my faith. The interesting thing about being me (and I think most of you...Mike...haha), is that I'm not really all that conservative, so the fact that my faith influences my politics kinda takes people by surprise a little. Anyway, I don't need to talk to you all about that, you mostly know my views and if you want to know, just email me. The point is that that opened the conversation up to faith questions, and that's why I thought I'd throw something up here quick. We started talking and he was asking a lot of questions, which I thought was pretty fun, so I was trying to answer as best I could. It was, all told, a pretty enjoyable time. I was talking to Andy the other day and he was saying that the people he is surrounded by tend to ask questions without actually wanting to hear the answers, they're just more scripted questions that the people think are effective pot-shots at Christianity, but in fact can be answered without much trouble, they just don't want to hear it. Fortunately, this was different. He actually listened to the answers. Now comes the weird part (well, weird for me). It seems that having worked with high schoolers for so long, and talked to them about stuff like this, I've gotten used to people who don't really have a solidly established set of beliefs, so it's kind of like working with a blank pallate (sp?). Talking with more and more people my own age, this is getting a little trickier. Dan was really interested in what I had to say, but it turns out that the reason is (to his own credit, really) he has decided to very honestly attempt to live life being as open minded as he possibly can. That's a pretty admirable goal, I think. So he really just wanted to know about Christianity for the sake of knowing. Not that that's bad or anything, just a little surprising for me. I'm not sure exactly what it is he believes, he tried explaining it to me in a very basic sense, but he never actually used the name of the religion (I wondered throughout if it wasn't Scientology but not knowing much about it I couldn't say for sure) so it was pretty vague. It was interesting that the more I answered the questions he posed, and answered them in a fairly effective way, I think, he just kept going back to this statement that there is a possibility that the Bible has been tampered with throughout history to be used more as a tool to keep people in line and maintain control. I tried to tell him that it's the most historically accurate book in the world, and that the oldest known copies of the New Testament line up with what we've got, but he wasn't buying. He said that he's heard otherwise but just couldn't remember where so he didn't want to try to falsely cite anything. Fair enough, I've run into that problem before, knowing that I've heard something before and it seems like it was a reputable source but I just can't place it. I only wish he could have remembered so I could look into it. Anyway, the whole point of this email is a simple revelation for me: it turns out that the older I get and the older people I'm around get, while opportunities may abound to get into conversations like this, the possibility more and more exists that the other person may have a set system of beliefs that they're not really all that willing to abandon right away. For some reason I just didn't really see that coming. Turns out the rest of the world has been looking for answers just like I have, and it seems that some of them have found some answers somewhere else. Who knew? Just thought I'd share that little bit of my own naivete with ya'll. Peace.