Summary
Voltaire posits the inherent flaws of a society embedded with Christian ideologies that support fanaticism and coercion as naturalized by the Church. He believes that any system of belief which “does not tend towards the goal [of meriting the goodness of God] must be considered alien or dangerous” (Voltaire, 115-116). He does not entirely denounce the Church, but disagrees with the Church’s authority to forcibly convert and punish those whose ideologies are not in line their beliefs.
Analysis
Voltaire bears no distinction between religious fanatics. He uses the example of the Diaz brothers to showcase how one form of fanaticism is preferred and even revered when posed against the actions of the other. Jean Diaz “was firmly convinced that the Pope was the Antichrist of the Apocalypse” in striking contrast to his brother who “killed him for the love of God” (117). It’s no stretch to assume that the Church would have heralded Bartholomew’s actions in the same way crusaders’ bloody ambitions were justified by their love of God. Voltaire denounces the evils of Fanaticism as a poison that “corrupts the minds” of certain believers. He states that fanatics “cannot see that these examples which were respectable in antiquity are abominable in the present” and that the danger lies in scriptural validation of such unruly behavior and that “laws and religion are not strong enough” to kill that which this very religion started (118).
Voltaire’s take on Religion itself comes in the form of a dream, where he is guided by an angel of God to view the deaths compiled and noble intellects the Church has denounced for lack of alignment with orthodoxy. Socrates, Pythagoras and Zoroaster number those he spoke with, and was brought to see the death toll in its entirety from crusades and Christian induced genocides from around the world. It was enough to make him weep, and realize the horror of it all when at last the angel indifferently responds that he “never differentiated between Samaritan and Jew” (124). Both Voltaire and the angel are in agreement about the arbitrary lines drawn that lead to the wrongs incited by the Church. Over the ages, the Church has not only killed non-Christians by the score, but also other groups of Christians over menial differences of opinion. Voltaire mocks the integrity of the Church for instigating war on its brothers and denying the legitimacy of ancient minds if only to subvert their prowess under God.
Voltaire uses the Church’s current state as segmented into Sects to state that Christianity cannot be the ‘true religion.’ A true religion to him is one that “all minds are necessarily in agreement,” and the fact that so many subgenres of Christianity exist only prove the abundance of contradictions of falsities that exist in any one Church’s doctrine (125). He thinks the religion all men can agree on is one that solely concerns itself with “the worship of a God, and to honesty,” and perhaps any religion that complicates this message only acts in deviating the primary purpose of worship (125).
By addressing Superstition as the undefinable ‘other’ that many Europeans project onto others of differing beliefs, he asserts that one’s own religion is no more than a Superstition itself in the eyes of everyone else.
Finally, Voltaire concludes by addressing Tolerance, a fundamental part of our human nature to forgive and accept the mistakes our brothers make, in turn we should be justly forgiven reciprocally for mistakes we make. Voltaire believes the Church’s most fundamental flaw is its rigid lack of tolerance for non believers, looking in the past to great ancient kingdoms that ruled over a land populated with multiple races and religions. However, the Church has effectively polarized the world into Christian and non Christian, remaining forcibly intolerant of groups who do not convert. He concludes that “we ought to be tolerant of one another, because we are all weak, inconsistent, liable to fickleness and error” (131).