Voltaire

Voltaire

  • Submitted By: cooper12
  • Date Submitted: 11/01/2010 1:46 PM
  • Category: Biographies
  • Words: 737
  • Page: 3
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Voltaire

Voltaire born Francois-Marie Arouet was a philosopher and a writer. Born in 1694, Voltaire was destined to study law under the orders of his father. He wanted to become a writer so he left law school and followed his dreams. He became infamous for his satirical writings and criticisms of various governments and organized religion. During his life he wrote on how he believed organized religion was a terrible thing and he wrote on how it should be crushed. Voltaire, during his time wrote on organized religion and that it should be crushed, he wrote with near hatred and disgust for the church at the time and was very strong with his opinions.
Although Voltaire criticized many aspects of culture he took an unusual criticism to the organized religion of the time. Voltaire even went as far as to say crush the infamous thing in one of his letters. By saying this he was considered a heretic. During his early writings he criticized the French government and was imprisoned it was after his release that he wrote of his criticisms of the church. He wrote with such venom regarding all topics but the most when concerning religion. Although Voltaire remained Christian throughout his writings he criticized major aspects of the church. Some consider him a hypocrite for his writings against the church considering he was a Christian himself and believed in God as the one who put the earth in motion. I disagree with his being called a hypocrite because I believe he only called for reform and did not despise religion as a whole. He called for the destruction of organized religion because he disagreed with the church hierarchy system.
There were three main points that Voltaire disagreed with the most and these are considered the three infamies. He disagreed with revelation, church hierarchy and Christian intolerance. He was repulsed by the Christian intolerance of the time and his main points for this argument were that the Christians believed that everyone is God’s...

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