Atheists have our own little parables to

And it's not just Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" either.

I just finished reading Terry Pratchett's excellent novel, "Nation". And it is one of the greatest atheist parables since the aforementioned Pullman series. While it is for young adults, adults will enjoy it as well. The story takes place in an alternate Earth during a time similar to our own late 19th century, and concerns a young man named Mau. At the beginning of the tale, Mau is returning to his island Nation after being on a separate island where boys are sent to become men. During his return a giant tidal wave swallows tosses his canoe around, a canoe he made as part of his coming of age ritual. The wave drops him off on his people's island where he discovers he is the only one left, as the wave has killed every one on the island. Unbeknown to him the wave also shipwrecked a young aristocratic girl, who is only 139 people away from the British throne, and, because of her father holds an interest in all things scientific. After burying his dead people, he and the girl begin to interact, and survive together. I'm not going to go into all the plot details, read it yourself, I implore you. The crux of the story though is Mau's rejection of his peoples belief and patent acceptance that everything is the will of the god, and that "the gods did it so who are we to question" is a common answer to tough questions and inquiry into any phenomena, like the great wave. One of the great quotes in the book comes towards the end, where a descendant of Pilu (one of the characters, who joined Mau's new Nation and was from another island, which had a similar culture to those of Mau's people) is quoting Mau when asked if he believes in god (in this case the people of the Nation believed in a god called Imo) and his reply is "Imo made us clever enough to work out he does not exist"

This book just left me with a case of the wows. I cannot recommend it enough.