A Great Freethinkerby William Edelen
The 300th anniversary of François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694- 1778) is here. He was born in Paris on November 21, 1694. How can I write about this giant freethinker in one page that is my space for this issue? I will try, and hopefully you will continue on your own. Voltaire-even the name makes my blood run faster. French poet, playwright, novelist, historian, essayist, popularizer of science, philosopher, social reformer, and without any question the most influential figure of the Enlightenment. I will concentrate in this short space on Voltaire's devastating attack on organized and institutional Christianity. His letters and pamphlets all concluded with the words, Écrasez l'infâme! Crush the infamy! and by the 'infamy' he meant Christianity. This infamy, Christianity, he said was nothing more than organized superstition and the major cause of cruelty and persecution. Thomas Jeff-erson and James Madison said exactly the same thing years later at the foundation of America. Voltaire has been called a Deist, along with the major Founding Fathers of this country. But Theodore Besterman, Voltaire's major biographer, writes: "Voltaire was at most an agnostic; and were any tough-minded philosopher to maintain that this type of agnosticism is indistinguishable from atheism, I would not be prepared to contradict him." Deism is a very ambiguous word. What is absolutely certain, without any doubt, is that Voltaire opposed Christianity with every ounce of his mind, talents, passion, brilliance, logic and studies, and regarded it as a major aberration of the human mind and as the most terrible disaster for the human race. It is as Alfred North Whitehead said when he was at Harvard University: "Christianity is the greatest disaster in the history of the human race." The biographer A. W. Benn made this observation: "If Voltaire did not succeed in destroying Christianity, he did more towards turning it into a religion of humanity than any other man has ever done or can ever hope to do."
Sounds like Thomas Paine and some of our first six Presidents who said the same thing. Voltaire was loved and adored by the common people. Only the Christian church black-robed tyrants hated him, for obvious reasons. When Voltaire returned to Paris, he was received with welcome demonstrations fit for a hero. Benjamin Franklin was among his visitors and ardent admirers. When he appeared at the theatres he was "received with tumultuous acclamation. A band added to the air of festivity. An actor brought him a laurel crown," according to the reports of the day. He was also enthusiastically honored by the French Academy. He died in Paris on May 30, 1778. Voltaire never married. He had a succession of mistresses, which was a common practice for that time. He had no children, or none known at least. His mistresses were all women of great intellect. It is in a letter to Frederick the Great that Voltaire stated his belief in the strongest language: "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world," and it will be impossible to achieve a humane and rational society with the superstitions of Christianity believed and practiced. Perhaps that giant polymath, Robert Ingersoll, said it best: "Voltaire did more for human liberty than any other man who ever lived or died." William Edelen is a lecturer in the Palm Springs area and a regular columnist for the Truth Seeker.
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