Well, that didn't take long. Maybe I should have gone to university after all. So, I've no idea what this blogging is all about. Am I writing shite for myself or shite for others to read? I think I'll just go down the route of writing shite for myself. Can't imagine why anyone would want to read this. Personally, I can't think of anything worse than reading about other people's lives. Other people have never generally held any interest for me.

So anyway, let's kick this thing off. What do I write about? I've been thinking all day at work about starting a blog, and must have thought of a million things I wanted to write about, but now I've come home and I'm sitting here, my mind is as blank as a letter-less, no score 'c' at the front of the word 'lueless' on a scrabble board.

Did that make sense? Not to others I guess, but that's not why I'm here. I guess I'm trying to think of something to kick-start this blog off, but I'm thinking too hard, which is why I'm just typing and hoping something will shine through. Should I start with something political? Controversial? (I'll have to Google spell check this before I post it) Deep? Philosophical? (I'll definitely have to spell check it now) or just mundane, day to day ramblings?

Well, one thing has been on my mind all week. I work with a lot of Muslims and have done for the last nine years or so. I get on with most of them, and the issue of religion only ever rarely enters the general conversation, and even then it's just as casual banter between work colleagues. But on Monday, I was sat with a group of them in a van, and one of them (who I've known for some time and is a nice guy) started asking me if I ever think of 'the dark box...the dark box with the light in it'. I had no idea what he was on about and just kept saying 'yes...yes...' hoping that somewhere down the line it would all become clear, but at the end of it, I must have looked quite dazed, because another guy prodded, laughed, and said "He's talking about when you die".

Which kick started a conversation that has lasted all week. My private thoughts on religion is that I don't believe a word of it. Any religion. I think it's all a lot of mumbo jumbo, invented in a world that has long gone, and that although science doesn't have the answer to everything, it has explained a lot, and continues to do so.

However, I didn't want to tell them this, as I find debates quite interesting, and if I had come right out at the start and said something along the lines of "I'm simply not interested", they would have shut up. But something in me wanted to hear what they had to say about it. I know very little about any religion, let alone Islam, but I'm interested in why people believe what they do, when scientific evidence seems to contradict a lot of what they believe.

So I simply said that I was one of the undecided. I told them truthfully that I hadn't been bought up with religion, it wasn't part of my culture, as it is theirs, and that as far as I was concerned, nobody knows for sure what is true and what is not. Different countries and different societies around the world all have their own beliefs, and for someone nonreligious like me, I simply look at them all, and wonder why people believe what they do, when people in the country next to them believe something different.

This is, of course, all said and talked about in a very banter-like way, and I certainly didn't get the impression that he was somehow trying to brainwash me. I've known him (and his friends) for a long time, and brainwashing just isn't their style.

However, it has somehow, made me think that it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least read up about it a little. When I said to one of them that even if I decide to follow a religion, I wouldn't know which one to choose, he simply said "just read about them and make up your own mind", which made me think that maybe I should.

I have no interest in religion, in terms of becoming a follower, suddenly 'seeing the light' or becoming instantly converted overnight, but it does intrigue me a little as to knowing just what it is that makes people follow this type of, well, if I'm honest, rubbish.

I just feel, a little, that I'm not really qualified to have the view that I do, without at least knowing a little more about it. I read on the net yesterday that if I was to read the Koran, I would understand it a little more if I read the Torah first. And it also surprised me a bit to see that there were version of these books written in quite easy to understand English, which is also a blessing because I just can't bear all those "thous" and "thees". I sort of look at it like having to read 'The Hobbit' before I dive into 'The Lord Of The Rings'.

I'm hoping that it would make a good read if anything else, and it would at least broaden my mind a little as to why people believe in this sort of stuff. I even went to the bookshop earlier to get a copy of the Torah, but they didn't have it. Divine intervention via Jesus? Who knows...

Anyway, that's been on my mind all week, for some reason. It even got to the stage where when I saw the guy today, I lifted my newspaper up over my face and shouted "Don't look at his eyes...don't look at his eyes". He took the joke quite well.

Anyway, well, that's at least kick started this blog off. I can now take a deep breath and feel a little easier about writing any old shit.

Can I swear on here? I love a healthy expletive now and again.