‘One God Further’
We’re all atheists about most gods. Atheists just go one god further…or do they?
If you start with monotheism, and you go ‘one god further’, you get atheism. Right?
Or no? What’s the joke about?
History
The quip feels psychologically implausible in a way we can’t put our finger on. That’s what makes it funny, as well as “sticky” in the memory. It implies that atheism is just an intensification of monotheism, when surely it is not. The joke doesn’t capture the meaningful difference between atheism and theism. If anything, it seems to get it backwards.
Where does the joke come from? Well, arguably, it’s been kicking around since 1782, when Thomas Jefferson wrote in Notes on the State of Virginia: “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Or perhaps 1794, when Thomas Paine wrote in the first part of The Age of Reason: “Each of those churches [Jewish, Christian, Muslim] accuses the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”
In the early days of the Internet, in 1995, Stephen F. Roberts used this tagline on the alt.atheism newsgroup: “I contend we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand…
