So you were raised Catholic?

One of the pretentious blowhards from the UK in Skypeland loves to carry on about how much he knows. He told us he was raised Catholic, but is an atheist now. The Englishman was talking to a man in Serbia, and the Englishman asked the Serbian if he was a Christian. The Serbian said he is a member of the Orthodox Church. The great genius from England then asked, "So you are a Catholic then?" A real rocket scientist here...

The English guy said that he thought religion should not be taught in school. I disagreed and said that I favored teaching comparative religion in school, as they do in the UK. I said I had seen the consequences of not teaching religion in schools.

The Englishman asked repeatedly what I meant, but would not let me respond. He asked where I lived that they did not teach comparative religion, although he knows that I live in the USA. I said I was talking about the United States. He continued to play dumb and pretend he did not know what I was talking about and what I meant or where I lived, etc. When I tried to answer, he would not let me, over and over.

I asked how many years he had lived in the US. He said he had spent a few hours on the tarmac in Miami. I got him to admit that this was less than a few years, so he really did not know much about the US.

This English gentleman claimed I never bring anything to a conversation and never have anything intelligent to say. To counter this, I brought up a topic. I said I had heard some crazy rumors that the present government in Turkey, which some claim is an Islamist government, was installed secretly by the CIA. This English gentleman chimed in immediately to say that since the Turkish intelligence service works sometimes with the Mossad, he thought that probably the CIA and Mossad had faked the Turkish election. Ooohkay...this guy will believe almost anything.

The Serbian man asked if I would explain why I thought that it might be beneficial to teach comparative religion in public schools. I said I would be glad to do so if I was allowed to, and not interrupted. The English gentleman claimed that I had no answer, interrupting me to say this. I stated that I would answer if I was permitted. The Englishman said I was permitted to answer, interrupting me to tell me this every time I started to answer, over and over. I said I would leave if I was interrupted again. I said that if this English gentleman knew the answer, he could answer for me, since he kept interrupting. He claimed he was not interrupting, but continued to do so, interrupting to point out how he was not interrupting. He then threw in a few non sequiturs like "what about the mass media?" and similar statements completely off-topic. This guy is very impressive, isn't he? He shows he really knows how to carry on a reasonable conversation and is completely fair and polite...

This happened 2 or 3 times in a row. Finally I decided I had had enough, so I left. I had my own room to manage, anyway and I could not waste more time with this character, giving him more of a platform on which to display his special "talents" and abilities.

After I left, apparently several people started a huge discussion about how horrible and ignorant and difficult I am. I am glad I have these people something to talk about. Maybe if some of them are literate, they might read this account of my side of this event in this blog.

They did not actually get to hear exactly why I suspect that teaching comparative religion in schools is a good idea, however. But then, that would be like having a real conversation, and discussing things and exchanging information, and that is not what these people seem to be about. They do provide ample material for these blog articles, however...