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God & Human Beings: First English Translation
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In this little-known work by Voltaire (1694-1778)—now available in English for the first time— the famous French philosophe and satirist presents a wide-ranging and acerbic survey of religion throughout the world. Written toward the end of his life in 1769, the work was penned in the same decade as some of his more famous works—the Philosophical Dictionary, Questions on
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Paperback, 183 pages
Published
May 25th 2010
by Prometheus Books
(first published May 4th 2010)
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If for nothing else, this is a great survey of world religions. Brahmins, Chinese Taoism, Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Persians, Arabs, Jews and more. The central theme is that every civilization has had a supreme being, wether it be Jupiter, Zeus, or God. Voltaire presents a slew of arguments and documented contradictions in Jewish religion, but, contrary to popular belief, Voltaire is not an atheist. He himself believes in the Christian God. This entire treatise is merely a prompt to
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This is one of my favorite works by Voltaire, and it's wonderful to find it available in English at last, though it probably was, in extracts at least, in the 18th century. Brought out three years after his "Philosophical Dictionary" became a best-seller, including in America, and while the theologians were still enraged over it, Voltaire marshals all the arguments on where our "Christian" beliefs and dogmas really came from, how much they differ from Jesus,' lists all the massacres committed in
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Writing in the 18th century, Voltaire takes the existence of God and the brutal hypocrisy of theology as equally obvious. In God and Human Beings he compares Christianity to religions of antiquity to reveal the gospels as plagiarized nonsense co-opted by church authorities to serve their own ends. Voltaire's polemical book went as far as it could in his time given that Darwin wouldn't explain the origins of biological complexity for another century. I found myself wishing the two had been
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Complete works (1880) : https://archive.org/details/oeuvresco...
In 1694, Age of Enlightenment leader Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was born in Paris. Jesuit-educated, he began writing clever verses by the age of 12. He launched a lifelong, successful playwriting career in 1718, interrupted by imprisonment in the Bastille. Upon a second imprisonment, in which Francois adopted the pen ...more
In 1694, Age of Enlightenment leader Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was born in Paris. Jesuit-educated, he began writing clever verses by the age of 12. He launched a lifelong, successful playwriting career in 1718, interrupted by imprisonment in the Bastille. Upon a second imprisonment, in which Francois adopted the pen ...more
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