What a jolly romp! Atheists and most other freethinkers will love this book. It will probably do nothing to true believers except annoy them, should they bother to read it. I think that the best audience for this book is those who are in between, people who have some notion of a God, some religious training that has not quite gone away, or perhaps "theism by osmosis," people who are open-minded enough to want to see what makes an atheist tick, and who don’t mind being entertained in the process.

Michael Martin is the author of Atheism: A Philosophical Justification, a majestic but difficult book. I’ve been meaning to review that book in Truth Seeker for years, but still have not read it all. For a wider audience, a simpler and more warm-hearted approach was needed. Martin doubted whether he could do such a thing, but then remembered that he had raised two sons on bedtime stories, most of which he invented himself. If story-telling can get the message across, then by golly he could do it. And so he did.

There are several different interweaving stories, with quite a cast of characters, and a time span of four centuries, from the 18th to the 22nd. The story that provides the title of the book is itself a double thread. It is autobiographical: Martin interweaves one of his university lectures with flashbacks to childhood discussions with a freethinker relative. The topic is the First Cause argument. Everything has a cause, and, unless you allow infinite regress (unthinkable!), there has to be a first cause. That First Cause is God. See how easy it is to prove that God exists? Well, if we have a chain of falling dominoes, there has to have been a first domino. Funny. If we work from the domino metaphor, I’d have thought that God would be the guy who flicked his finger on the first domino and toppled it, starting the chain. But no: God has to be the first domino itself. Strange stuff, this theology.

Then there’s Pascal’s Wager, which in this book becomes "Frenchy’s Con." A real rib-tickler, but still I have to give Anna Voss, until recently of the Atheist Coalition here in San Diego, the credit for the best answer to that one. (Pascal suggested that you should believe on a bet: if you bet on God and lose, no big deal; if you bet & win, hallelujah. If you bet against God & win, no big deal; if you lose, oh oh.) Anna has her potential bettor ask the Frenchy stand-in: "This God of yours—he’s omniscient, he knows everything, including the innermost secrets of your heart—and he can’t tell you’re faking it?" She understands that belief isn’t something you can do on a bet.

And then there’s the one about God and the overzealous Marine Drill Instructor—two peas in a pod.

So far it sounds like giggles and snickers. But there’s more serious stuff in this book, too. The problem of evil, the problem of which of the many gods to choose from and how, the endless argument over how to use the word "atheist," the tragedy of suicide triggered by depression, and what happens to young people when they get into university. On this last, I am pleased to report that there are some happy endings in this book. Besides being fun, the book is tender, kind, and in the main optimistic, but open-eyed, ready to face the world as we see it.

Again, I heartily recommend this book to those who are ready to explore questions of religion, who want to learn a little more about those who are unlike themselves. It would be a pity if this book ended up preaching to the choir. It deserves better.

The Big Domino in the Sky by Michael Martin. ©1996. Published by Prometheus Books, 69 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, NY 14228-2197. ISBN 1-57392-111-4. Paperback. $16.95.

---