Stephen Roberts is credited as the author of this quotation:

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god
than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other
possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

Who is he, and what is the source of this heavily quoted line?  I have
found this much--

Type: 
Businessman
Date of Birth: 
4/13/1915 
Year of Birth: 
1915 
Find on Amazon: 
Stephen Roberts

but was unable to "find on Amazon."  I did get one G****e hit that added a
middle initial K.

Thank you,
Apteryx

Hello Apteryx,

How are you?

It seems that Stephen Roberts is an internet user whose quote has been
spread far and wide.

Mr. Roberts has a web site at:
http://wildlink.com/freelink/index.php

He explains the history of his quote at:
http://wildlink.com/freelink/quote_history.htm

If you'd like to know more about him, he has a resume posted at:
http://wildlink.com/work/stephen_f_roberts_resume.pdf

A search of the Google Groups archive verifies that Mr Roberts himself
was using the quote as his signature in newsgroup posts in late 1995.
See this post from November 1995:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=g:thl173555234d&dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=30b90396.7800064%40news.io.com


search strategy:
"one fewer god", "stephen roberts is"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22one+fewer+god%22%2C+%22stephen+roberts+is%22&btnG=Google+Search


I hope this helps.

Hi, juggler--I'm fine.  Nice to hear from you, and thanks for taking
my question.  You found out exactly what I wanted to know and
satisfied my curiosity (for the moment).

Apteryx

This wildly popular quote really doesn't make much sense, if you think
about it.

It is like an unmarried man extolling the superiority of his marital
status by saying, to a married man, "I contend that we are both
bachelors. I have just married one fewer wife than you have. When you
understand why you aren't a polygamist, you will understand why I
choose to be single."

As a former atheist, I've seen many defenses of atheism which were
more logical, more elegant, and not so snotty-sounding. ;-)

You're right, Pink, it doesn't make any sense at all! I guess it just
sounds like it does so people nod and say, "Uh, yeah, I'll use that!"
But so few people pick it apart to see if it has actual value.
Interesting how the religious are called "sheep" yet so many have
picked up on a quote that none have thought to analyze!

:)

Filian

That response that, upon reflection, says, "Huh?  What did this really
say?" is part of what interests me about this quote.  Here's another
one like that (quotation approximate, from memory):  "I learned that
if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any
further than my own back yard.  Because if it isn't there, I never
really lost it in the first place.  --And Oh, Auntie Em!  There's NO
place like home!"  [Cue orchestra.]

What I think appeals to so many about this line about atheism is that
it seems to turn the religious person's case back upon himself:  you
are a nonbeliever with respect to these other gods; I am a nonbeliever
with respect to them and to yours too.  For a moment there, it sounds
like a great argument.  But it requires redefining atheism as
nonbelief in specific deities rather than in *any* deity, transforming
it from an absolute to a relative position in a way that undercuts the
essential meaning of atheism; that's why it doesn't stand up.

(By the way, I am positively not engaging in or inviting debate on the
matter of divine existence or nonexistence.  I'm not even taking sides
here.  I just wondered about the story behind this quote, erroneously
thinking that it probably came from a longer work.  I wanted to see it
in context.)

I have a friend who is a career atheist.  Born Jewish ("I'm an
atheist," he says, "but I'm a *Jewish* atheist."), he refers to
atheism as his religion.    He says this:  "When you have an atheist,
you have a lost true believer."  He contends that atheists believe
their religious truth with every bit as much conviction as any
religious person; in other words, atheists are not nonbelievers--they
simply believe in not-God as much as the faithful believe in God. 
This turns the thinking the other way.  Purely from the standpoint of
logic, I consider it a more successful formulation.

Thanks for all your comments.
Apteryx

The agnostic is the only completely honest/sensible person around,
(scientifically speaking), since no one can absolutely "prove" or
"disprove" the existence of God, (except to themselves).  The "I don't
know for sure" stance of the agnostic even allows them to be extremely
moral, which accounts for the "conscientious" persons throughout
history, who have managed to do "God's Will", without "religion",
simply because their conscience, (which is ruled by the amount of
truth we know), led them to do so.
The Most Reverend Sun Myung Moon once said something, on this subject,
that struck me.  He said that anyone who really looks at a flower,
should not be capable of denying the existence of God.  At another
time, concerning why in the world God created venomous snakes, He said
that it was because God wants us to really appreciate "Mother Nature",
and the fact that we have to keep an eye out for these snakes, means
that we end up seeing more of the beauty of nature around us.  Sounds
like proof of the existence of God, to me.... :-) God does have a
sense of humor, after all.
Love To All,
trueparent-GA