in the bookshop

 "I don't believe in God," said the bookshop owner earnestly.

"What do you believe in?" ventured I.

"Science," he proclaimed proclaimingly.

"Which science?" enquired I.

"What do you mean?" quoth he.

"I mean," said I, "that many of the scientific theories currently in vogue, contradict each other. The two basic physical theories of reality sometimes styled Quantum and Relativity, explicitly contradict each other. One must be false. Both may be. String Theory which has received billions in cash investment and who knows how many man hours increasingly looks like pure junk."

"Relativity and Quantum may seem to contradict each other," he asserted, "but scientists are working on a Unified Fields theory to explain those differences. As for String Theory, that's how science progrsses. False theories are eventually discarded."

I was a bit surprised.

Never before has anyone who has told me he believed in science, actually been aware that there were two fundamental physical scientific theories of existence, nor been aware that they are incompatible with each other, nor again been aware of the postulated notion of a Unified Fields Theory to erase the incompatibilities nor even for a second been aware or admitted that String Theory is nonsense.

I quickly went from a bit surprised to being a bit impressed.

"Do you actually think they're going to find a Unified Fields Theory?" I managed eventually.

"Yes I do," said he.

I broke into a warm smile.

"You have great faith," I murmured. "What could we not have done with you in the Catholic Church as we battled our way through this age of lucifer!"

It was his turn to smile.

"I don't believe in the devil," he said.

"That won't save you," I said quietly.

It was an eerie moment broken only when I explained to him that I'd lifted the line from a 2008 ghostie TV drama made by the BBC as a sort of British X Files and starring one of the blokes from a 1970s tough guy secret agent series called The Professionals which I should never in all my born days have watched, (the ghostie thing not the Professionals) and that the ghostie thing starred the Professional, no not Lewis Collins, the other one, whatsisface, the guy trying to be Starsky, oh come on, what was his name, Martin Shaw, that's the one, who for many years caused some chagrin to other cast members and contributors of the Professionals  because he considered himself a serious actor and wouldn't allow reruns of The Professionals for fear of damaging his image, and so his fellow actors and contributors to The Professionals found themselves at something of a loss from the revenues that would have accrued had there been reruns, a problem that never occurred with the ghostie thing because it was a nasty piece of work and I only watched five minutes of it and they only made one series of it, and the issue of reruns never arose, although its theology from the bit I saw seemed sound.

"They used to drive a Ford Capri," said the bookshop owner.

"Who?" said I.

"The Professionals," quoth he.

He was a very well informed bookshop owner.