Read Online The Good Atheist by Michael Manto - Free Book Online

he hadn’t contacted me. Why was he content to keep pictures of me in his den and never call?
    Selene broke into my thoughts. “Jack, would you stop staring at those pictures and look?”
    I set the picture back on the shelf. “It’s incredible. There’s got to be hundreds of real paper books here.”
    She pointed her finger towards an upper corner of the room, shaking it for emphasis. “Jack, for crying out loud!”
    I looked up to the corner of the ceiling where she pointed. “It’s just a spider,” I said.
    “Well, it’s the biggest spider I’ve ever seen. Can you kill it before it decides to put us on its dinner menu?”
    “Just a sec,” I said. I pulled a book off the shelf in front of me and looked at the front cover. The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire . Probably harmless, I thought, though most history books printed previous to the Harris purges were banned. I’d have to check the Prohibited Publications list to be sure.
    The History of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. sat next to it. I was familiar with that title, as we studied the digital version in high school. But here was a rare early copy of the print edition. It would be worth a small fortune, if it wasn’t banned. I’d have to check the Prohibited list for that one as well.
    “Jack, what on earth are you doing?”
    “Just looking.”
    “Can you please get that spider for me?” Selene had an almost psychotic aversion to dirt and bugs, but especially spiders, and I realized I was being insensitive to her situation. I looked around for something handy to squish it with, like a tissue box. There was a stack of books on the desk, but it felt wrong somehow to use a rare paper book as a bug swatter.
    I pulled off my shoe and approached the corner of the shelving unit where the spider lurked. The spider suddenly dropped on a silky thread and landed on the spine of a book sitting on the top shelf. I read the title as the spider crawled down the spine.
    The Holy Bible.
    I pulled it off the shelf and held it in my hands, reading the title again to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. I could hardly believe it. A real copy of the Bible.
    “Jack, what are you doing?” Selene asked me with a puzzled look on her face.
    I held up the book for her to see. “Honey, we’ve got a problem here,” I said quietly.
    “I know. So why don’t you just kill it. What are you waiting for?”
    “No, I mean look at this.” I handed the Bible to her and she took it from me. She looked at the front cover of the book, turned it over and read the back copy, then handed it back. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before, except in a museum behind glass.”
    I put the Bible down on the desk and looked at the shelves. The Bible was banned, of course, and owning one was prohibited. If Grandpa had a copy of the Bible lying around, then I wondered what else might fill these shelves. I looked at the book that had been next to the Bible on the shelf, and it was almost as shocking: The Reason for God . I pulled it off the shelf and paged through it. A random reading told me all I needed to know. This book, as the title darkly hinted, was an argument for the existence of God. I held the book in my hand and scanned down the row of books on the shelf. God and the Astronomers . Why I Believe. The Case for Christianity . Reasonable Faith. The Existence of God.
    The room was filled with religious books.
    I held The Reason for God out for Selene to see. “And it gets worse. Look at this,” I said. She took it from me and looked at it, turning it over in her hands.
    “These shelves are filled with religious books,” I said.
    “We’ll need to find a public incinerator,” she said.
    She was right, of course. Bibles were strictly verboten , along with most religious books. Just having a Bible in your possession would get you jail time. We were obligated under law to call the Inquisitors, or turn them into the nearest public library for burning.
    “I think we passed a