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Voltaire's critical views on religion led to his belief in separation of church and state and religious freedom, ideas that he had formed after his stay in England. In August 1736, Frederick the Great, then Crown Prince of Prussia and a great admirer of Voltaire, initiated a correspondence with him. [73]
Voltaire first addresses religion in Letters 1–7. He specifically talks about Quakers (1–4), Anglicans (5), Presbyterians (6) and Socinians (7). In the Letters 1–4, Voltaire describes the Quakers, their customs, their beliefs, and their history. He appreciates the simplicity of their rituals.
French philosopher Voltaire argued for religious tolerance. Enlightenment era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years' War. [74]
Voltaire claimed that all men share a common, natural religion and that none of the formally established religions in this world can monopolize the truth concerning God or morality. As for moral behavior, it does not depend on Christian revelation or on clerical intermediary but on natural morality rooted in the conscience and reason of every man.
All these publications considered religious miracles—if they were possible and what they meant. Voltaire, who had been living at Ferney just outside of Geneva, wrote twenty of these pamphlets by the end of 1765. They attacked Calvinist religious dogmas, discussed religious massacres and martyrdoms, and discussed the local politics of Geneva.
In this view, the clergy, and religion more broadly, reaffirms ignorance of social realities by passing off religious teachings as objective truths. [5] However, in "Plato's Dream," Voltaire chose to focus more so on the philosophical foundations of religious beliefs, rather than religion as a social institution.
1. “Better is the enemy of good.” 2. “I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.” 3. “Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will ...
Voltaire finished the work by January 2, 1763, and it was printed by the Cramer brothers in Geneva in April 1763. After copies had been distributed to selected recipients, including Madame de Pompadour, ministers of the French privy council, Frederick the Great, and some German princes, it began to be distributed in October 1763 and was quickly banned.