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To: DesScorp
I think you need to study Voltaire further.

I don't like having to do the work for you, but since others may be fooled into thinking that because Voltaire mentions god, he must be Christian, I'll do a little of the work you should have done. Just because someone mentions god  (Muslims and animists may also mention god),  they are not necessarily Christians. The last word in the quote you mentioned is key. Christianity, in fact all Judeo-Christian religion, is what Voltaire considered to be superstition.

Here is a little information on your hero to get you started --

quotes:

"All good Christians glory in the folly of the Cross. Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense."
[Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, 1764]

"Superstition, born of paganism and adopted by Judaism, invested the Christian Church from earliest times. All the fathers of the Church, without exception, believed in the power of magic. The Church always condemned magic, but she always believed in it: she did not excommunicate sorcerers as madmen who were mistaken, but as men who were really in communication with the devil."
[Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, 1764]

"Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. But what shall we substitute in its place? you say. What? A ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my relatives. I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast, and you ask me what you shall put in its place?"
[Voltaire]

In Voltaire's day it was against the law to be an atheist, but that did not stop him from complimenting them:

"Which is more dangerous: fanaticism or atheism? Fanaticism is certainly a thousand times more deadly; for atheism inspires no bloody passion whereas fanaticism does; atheism is opposed to crime and fanaticism causes crimes to be committed."
[Voltaire]

"Atheism is the vice of a few intelligent people."
[Voltaire]

If these quotes are not enough for you, perhaps some lowly liberal wikipedia information will help:

Voltaire's largest philosophical work is the Dictionnaire philosophique, comprising articles contributed by him to the Encyclopédie and several minor pieces. It directed criticism at French political institutions, Voltaire's personal enemies, the Bible, and the Roman Catholic Church.

Voltaire was largely of the opinion that the Bible was
1) an outdated legal and/or moral reference,
2) by and large a metaphor, but one that still taught some good lessons, and
3) a work of Man, not a divine gift.
These beliefs did not hinder his religious practice, however, though it did gain him somewhat of a bad reputation in the Catholic Church. It may be noted that Voltaire was indeed seen as somewhat of a nuisance to many believers, and was almost universally known; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his father the year of Voltaire's death, saying, "The arch-scoundrel Voltaire has finally kicked the bucket...." [2] [my emphasis]

From translated works on Confucianism and Legalism, Voltaire drew on Chinese concepts of politics and philosophy - which were based on rational principles, to look critically at European organized religion and hereditary aristocracy.

Voltaire also displayed, as part of his Dictionnaire philosophique, an inclination towards the ideas of Hinduism and the works of Brahmin priests, asking, "Is it not probable that the Brahmins were the first legislators of the earth, the first philosophers, the first theologians?" His attitudes towards religious institutions are further shown in the criticisms he made of Christian missionaries in India.

 

You are the first person I have met who has ever tried to use Voltaire as a model Christian.  I can only assume it is because you either don't know Voltaire or you don't know Christianity.  I pray that you come to understand the truth about both.

150 posted on 10/23/2007 12:56:44 AM PDT by Waryone (Constantly amazed by society's downhill slide.)
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To: Waryone
I don't deny that Voltaire wasn't a Christian, but he did believe in a just God that created all. And did believe in the human soul.

"Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.


I seem to recall Our Savior telling us to be just to each other too. Even if Voltaire is in Hell, he attacked what he saw as hypocrisy in Christian faith, of which there was quite a bit at the time. He may not have believed Jesus was the savior, but he defended the right to believe it.

And while he wasn't a Christian, he certainly espoused many Christian beliefs. And he believed that even if someone's religious beliefs were foolish, they should be utterly defended on the grounds of freedom and toleration. Voltaire was no Richard Dawkins. I don't agree with everything he believed or espoused, but he did far more good than ill. Church membership or belief or faith certainly wasn't damaged in any way.

Christ was the savior of man, but unlike some others here, I don't expect someone to be a Christian to acknowledge that they have done much good on this mortal coil.
165 posted on 10/23/2007 9:44:19 AM PDT by DesScorp
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