Spiritual Reading - A biblical freak

I had a bit of a run in. Unsuspectingly I began to chat with a man who from a far seemed as normal as the next person, until he began preaching the gospel to me, making all kinds of bizarre connections between recent historical events and the bible.

The spiritual reading crowd were busying themselves in Bishop Lucey Park, but this guy was merely having a coffee outside of the Opera House. Maybe he was on a break.

After I confessed I did not believe in God, he tried his very best to convert me for the next 20 minutes. I was informed that Jacob – a Jewish name – meant the devil in an ancient language and that the twin towers were symbolically the towers of Babylon, oh yes and that New York is symbolised by the biblical apple, hence the name Big Apple. Indeed there was far more he tried to share with me about his infinite knowledge about world affairs, not least that he in fact sanctioned the attack on the Twin Towers. Let it be known, the roots of 9/11 lie in Cork, Ireland. Who’d have thunk it. Until I moved to this town, I had never heard of it or considered it in anyway significant on the greater scale but I have learnt better, not merely through the lunacy of a guy on the street but this towns establishment who where ever and whenever seek to celebrate as many Corkonians as they can possibly manage. One would be forgiven for thinking that Cork lies at the heart of civilisation.

Now, I would have written this conversation off as listening to the amusing ramblings of a mad man if it was not for one disturbing little fact. Asked what he thought about the Lisbon Treaty he gave a reply that could have fooled most as being almost reasonable, even if I did not agree with it. If we had not taken this amusing little detour through the bible I might have walked away thinking this man was sane.