Smells and atheists

So today I did my first site visit for our valley project, the first of many. I took with me my handy dandy camera, and because my bag was so heavy and it was so hot I decided not to pull out my sketch book for this first round, but instead use my mp3 player to record observations as I wandered around. What can I say, the valley is such a fascinating place! The location for our project is a massive vacant block on Wickham St, in the China town part of the valley, with the site backing onto the train line.
There wasn't as much graffiti around as I'd expected, however the places I walked around certainly lived up to the valley's reputation of being dirty. It's almost like one giant rubbish bin with a few interesting bits to pick through.
The most striking thing I noticed today however, was the multitude of smells that I came across. Sadly I only noticed this towards the end of my journey, but it was enough to record some very interesting smells. There is of course the always present lingering of cigarettes smoked by workers and homeless alike, but the more interesting smells I encountered were these: The amazing waft of asian cooking along Wickham St, the putrid dump like smells of the back alleys, some very strange smells (but disgusting) coming from the closed Indie Temple, a sniff of incense from I'm not sure where... however there do seem to be alot of Indians in the valley, and finally, an old man stinking of sweat.

That's enough on the valley for now, I briefly wanted to mention an interesting debate I went to tonight. I'm not sure about other christians but for me this is increasingly becoming a passion, that is exploring people's beliefs and how mine measure up to them, tonight focusing on science and atheism. At UQ we watched a dvd of a debate between well known atheist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and a gentleman previously unknown to me by the name of John Lennox (no not that one). Mr. Lennox presenting a christian scientists side of the argument. I won't go into details tonight of what was talked about, but I hope to get a copy of the DVD and think about the issues raised more. I guess the main issues raised were broadly evolution and evidence for a creator, and personally my beliefs were confirmed all the more by the discussion. Both were brilliant speakers, very smart men, and I learnt alot.
I'm reading a great book at the moment too called The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, which investigates the evidence for christianity by an atheist journalist, whom by the end of this investigation was convinced by the evidence and now calls himself a christian. It answers many of the big questions people have about the bible, I highly recommend it.

I'll start posting some pictures of the valley soon, and the experimenting I will begin doing for this valley project. Looking forward to it! until next time...