François-Marie Arouet: An Analysis Of Voltaire's View Of Religion

The enlightenment in the perspective of the French 18th century thinker, François-Marie Arouet, famously known as Voltaire, to him, was the time where religious superstations and ignorance was to be replaced with rational thinking. Unlike other enlightenment thinkers, Voltaire was not an atheist, he in fact believed in a greater power who was merciful, he believed in a balance between religion and science, and respected the unexplainable. Although, he by no means agreed with the Catholic church, which lead to a constant feud between him and the Catholic church, and in fact most authority. In a writing, called treatise on intolerance, in he condemns those who in his words say, “Believe, or I detest thee”, (Voltaire argued). He believed that it was cruel to

Voltaire faced quite a bit of conflict with the church, because of this. Voltaire was vocal about his belief that the Catholic church was abusive and for years he supported Protestants, though he did not share their beliefs his support for Protestants was almost out of the shared resentment they had for the Catholic church, (Encyclopedia). This was not the only of the blasphemous acts towards the Church of Catholicism, in the Epistle on the "Three Imposters" he says, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him", (cyclopedia). Voltaire was not an atheist, but again if he was not extreme about his beliefs, he would not be able to capture the attention of the Catholic Church, and at moments it may seem as though he is solely trying to enrage the church, but the enlightenment meant more to him then creating religious feuds, he was a writer who used to his wit to sway the French away from ignorance and superstition all in the greater idea of a more enlightened