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Voltaire (pen name of François-Marie Arouet) (1694-1778) was a leading [[French]] [[philosopher]] in the [[Enlightenment]], advocating freedom everywhere and emphasizing his form of reason. He was a [[Deism|deist]] who rejected [[Christianity]] and criticized [[religion]].  Voltaire is sometimes called the "Father of the Enlightenment."

Voltaire (pen name of François-Marie Arouet) (1694-1778) was a leading [[French]] [[philosopher]] in the [[Enlightenment]], advocating freedom everywhere and emphasizing his form of reason. He was a [[Deism|deist]] who rejected [[Christianity]] and criticized [[religion]].  Voltaire is sometimes called the "Father of the Enlightenment."

Voltaire wrote "Candide," in which he described many bad things that happen to Candide in order to make the point that the world could be a better place.  Increased freedom was Voltaire's way of improving things.

In ''Candide'' Voltaire criticized a prevailing belief that the world was in its best possible state because it was in God's hands. To illustrate this point, he follows the story of Candide as increasingly terrible things happen to him until he loses his optimistic view of the world and his [[Christianity|faith]].

==Voltaire on Religion==

==Voltaire on Religion==

Voltaire was very critical of religion, and has been variously categorized as an [[atheist]] or [[deist]].  

Voltaire was very critical of religion, and has been variously categorized as an [[atheist]] or [[deist]]. However a death-bed admonition to a priest attempting to convert him that "Now is no time to be making new enemies" implies that he was likely atheist or, less likely, [[Satanism|Satanist]].

In his ''Philosophical Dictionary,'' he fantasizes a conversation in which he asks a spirit "Tell me if there have been peoples other than the [[Christians]] and the [[Jews]] in whom zeal and religion wretchedly transformed into fanaticism, have inspired so many horrible cruelties." The spirit replies "Yes, the [[Muslim|Mohammedans]] were sullied with the same inhumanities, but rarely; and when one asked amman, pity, of them, and offered them tribute, they pardoned. As for the other nations there has not been one right from the existence of the world which has ever made a purely religious war."<ref>http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/volrelig.html</ref>

In his ''Philosophical Dictionary,'' he fantasizes a conversation in which he asks a spirit "Tell me if there have been peoples other than the [[Christians]] and the [[Jews]] in whom zeal and religion wretchedly transformed into fanaticism, have inspired so many horrible cruelties." The spirit replies "Yes, the [[Muslim|Mohammedans]] were sullied with the same inhumanities, but rarely; and when one asked amman, pity, of them, and offered them tribute, they pardoned. As for the other nations there has not been one right from the existence of the world which has ever made a purely religious war."<ref>http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/volrelig.html</ref>