Literacy at its best.

Carpooling from the office with Jonathan, a senior project manager, (currently in charge of a multi-million software development project). Jonathan is a Brit, mid-forties, with a gentlemanly well-groomed beard, a perpetual bow-tie, and an accent that would lend credibility to absolute horseshit.

Somehow, the topic of religion comes up, and Jonathan quickly proclaims his atheistic stance. “…secular, non-observant in any way, shape or form!” - I’m a little surprised by such a bold statement. In my limited experience of dealing with Brits, they tend to be rather mild in manners, and opinions.

“How so? Were you raised atheist?” - “No, Anglican. But ever since I could make rational judgments, I was an atheist. It was always very obvious to me…” “So you were educated on the subject, and have looked into this matter drawing your own conclusions, right?” Expecting his reply to be something like, “Of course! I spent X number of years or at least months reading various points of view, discussing them with… (whoever he considers an authority on the subject), arguing and thinking about it, etc.” Instead, once again I was surprised by his, “No, not really… It has always seemed plainly obvious, yes? Like the nose on your face. - It just is.”

So much for the famed English punctiliousness. The reason for my surprise was not the quaintness of his answer - au contraire - its pedestrian torpor. Here’s a man, given an exceptional education (Cambridge), had every opportunity to form an informed opinion, and he comes up with this load of crap. He literally had nothing else to offer in support of his view.

I nodded and commented on a French restaurant that we were passing. I can only hope that his decision-making processes at work are a smidgen more sophisticated.