A Religious Debate

Boy, I love Stanford students. You stick them in a situation where there's controversy or just plop one into a conversation on a heated topic and they'll go off on a spree. Today I witnessed this tendency to a most interesting extent. We had the afternoon free, so a couple of girls (myself included) went downtown to get a few supplies. Unfortunately, everything closes at 5pm, so we had a good hour to shop and then nothing! We therefore decided to check out the old treasury which had been turned into a casino! You only have to be 18 to get into a bar or casino, so this was a great opportunity. It is the first time I have ever stepped foot into a casino or have been carded!

That said and done, we head over to a restaurant called JoJo's, for dinner. It's this hip joint with four kiosks and slightly upscale dining. I had stir-fry, good, nothing special (www.jojos.com.au). Then we had gelatissimo for dessert! I shared a chocolate hazlenut and coconut mix with Omer! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Now is when the fun starts. It's 10pm and we're walking back to the train station. This guys is on a little stool preaching about Jesus, sinning, and atoning. Katie gets into a heated debate with him. This goes on for a while and then we decide to move on. Another guy comes up to Katie and we continue this conversation. He seems to think that the world was created no more than 6000 years ago. Then Sarah (the geologist) steps in spouting out evidence of radioactive dating and the like. Still no go. Then, Omer (who's Muslim) starts talking to the guy. They keep going round in circles because the guy thinks he knows the "truth" and Omer is trying to explain that this is all relative to your beliefs. Finally, we've had enough. They agree to disagree and we move on our merry way after a good hour! Exciting evening; the whole thing was being taped and people were planted in the audience!

-Peace