Enlightened Chains, pg. 4
God than atheism.” As well, he wrote to Voltaire, “I believe in God, but live with atheists…It is important to not mistake hemlock for parsley; but not at all so to believe or not in God.”
Diderot then creates a specific space where he can exist between the official dictates of the Church - which he sees as corrupt and an enemy of Enlightenment - and that of complete atheism. Ultimately, he claims, it matters little if one believes in God or not - as he explains in Conversation it matters only if the believer/non-believer is an honest man. There is inherent profit neither in believing nor in non-believing. It is important, then, to understand Diderot’s hatred of the Church as being a specific hatred of the Church as it was instituted in France and not a simplistic attack on all faith for the sake of atheism.
Voltaire, as well, is considered by many to be an enemy of the Church. Any number of quotes from Voltaire would give plenty of evidence for those so inclined to believe that. “If God did not exist, it would necessary to invent him, (The Social Contract)” and “God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh,” certainly reflect a less than all-respecting attitude. However, Voltaire turned his wit upon all impediments to divining the truth.
This is the same man that found the primitive medicine to be obscene. “The art of medicine,” he wrote, “consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” Having no use for popular fiction or quasi-theological philosophies that sought more to bind man’s thought than to liberate it, he wrote, “The multitude of books is making us ignorant.” Through it all, he clearly saw that it was the State’s use of power that was the
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Diderot then creates a specific space where he can exist between the official dictates of the Church - which he sees as corrupt and an enemy of Enlightenment - and that of complete atheism. Ultimately, he claims, it matters little if one believes in God or not - as he explains in Conversation it matters only if the believer/non-believer is an honest man. There is inherent profit neither in believing nor in non-believing. It is important, then, to understand Diderot’s hatred of the Church as being a specific hatred of the Church as it was instituted in France and not a simplistic attack on all faith for the sake of atheism.
Voltaire, as well, is considered by many to be an enemy of the Church. Any number of quotes from Voltaire would give plenty of evidence for those so inclined to believe that. “If God did not exist, it would necessary to invent him, (The Social Contract)” and “God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh,” certainly reflect a less than all-respecting attitude. However, Voltaire turned his wit upon all impediments to divining the truth.
This is the same man that found the primitive medicine to be obscene. “The art of medicine,” he wrote, “consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” Having no use for popular fiction or quasi-theological philosophies that sought more to bind man’s thought than to liberate it, he wrote, “The multitude of books is making us ignorant.” Through it all, he clearly saw that it was the State’s use of power that was the
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