Editing Voltaire (section)

=== Christianity ===
Historians have described Voltaire's description of the history of Christianity as "propagandistic".{{sfn|Bremmer|2010|p=9}} His ''[[Dictionnaire philosophique]]'' is responsible for the myth that the early Church had fifty gospels before settling on the standard canonical four as well as propagating the myth that the canon of the [[New Testament]] was decided at the [[First Council of Nicaea]]. Voltaire is partially responsible for the misattribution of the expression ''[[Credo quia absurdum]]'' to the [[Church Fathers]].<ref>Harrison, Peter (2017). "{{-'}}I Believe Because It Is Absurd': The Enlightenment Invention of Tertullian's Credo". ''Church History'' 86.2: 350–59.</ref> Furthermore, despite the death of [[Hypatia]] being the result of finding herself in the crossfires of a mob (likely Christian) during a political feud in 4th-century [[Alexandria]], Voltaire [[Hypatia#Early modern period|promoted the theory]] that she was stripped naked and murdered by the minions of the bishop [[Cyril of Alexandria]], concluding by stating that "when one finds a beautiful woman completely naked, it is not for the purpose of massacring her." Voltaire meant for this argument to bolster one of his anti-Catholic tracts.<ref>Watts, Edward Jay. Hypatia: the life and legend of an ancient philosopher. Oxford University Press, 2017, 139.</ref> In a letter to Frederick the Great, dated 5 January 1767, he wrote about Christianity:
{{blockquote|{{lang|fr|La nôtre [religion] est sans contredit la plus ridicule, la plus absurde, et la plus sanguinaire qui ait jamais infecté le monde.}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Voltaire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z9MWAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA184 |title=Œuvres complètes de Voltaire, Volume 7 |year=1869 |page=184}}</ref><br />"Ours [i.e., the Christian religion] is assuredly the most ridiculous, the most absurd and the most bloody religion which has ever infected this world. Your Majesty will do the human race an eternal service by extirpating this infamous superstition, I do not say among the rabble, who are not worthy of being enlightened and who are apt for every yoke; I say among honest people, among men who think, among those who wish to think. ... My one regret in dying is that I cannot aid you in this noble enterprise, the finest and most respectable which the human mind can point out."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mathews |first=Chris |title=Modern Satanism: Anatomy of a Radical Subculture |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2009 |page=16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Coakley |first=Sarah |title=Faith, Rationality and the Passions |year=2012 |page=37}}</ref>}}

In ''La bible enfin expliquée'', he expressed the following attitude to lay reading of the Bible: <blockquote>It is characteristic of fanatics who read the holy scriptures to tell themselves: God killed, so I must kill; Abraham lied, Jacob deceived, Rachel stole: so I must steal, deceive, lie. But, wretch, you are neither Rachel, nor Jacob, nor Abraham, nor God; you are just a mad fool, and the popes who forbade the reading of the Bible were extremely wise.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cronk |first=Nicholas |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00cron |title=The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2009 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00cron/page/n214 199] |url-access=limited}}</ref></blockquote>

Voltaire's opinion of the Bible was mixed. Although influenced by [[Socinian]] works such as the ''[[Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum]]'', Voltaire's skeptical attitude to the Bible separated him from Unitarian theologians like [[Fausto Sozzini]] or even Biblical-political writers like [[John Locke]].<ref>R. E. Florida ''Voltaire and the Socinians'' 1974 "Voltaire from his very first writings on the subject of religion showed a libertine scorn of scripture, which he never lost. This set him apart from Socinianism even though he admired the simplicity of Socinian theology as well as their ...".</ref> His statements on religion also brought down on him the fury of the Jesuits and in particular [[Claude-Adrien Nonnotte]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series: Volume 7: 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814: Volume 7: 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=27}}edited by J. Jefferson Looney</ref><ref>''Les chrétiens n'avaient regardé jusqu'à présent le fameux Mahomet que comme un heureux brigand, un imposteur habile, un législateur presque toujours extravagant. Quelques Savants de ce siècle, sur la foi des rapsodies arabesques, ont entrepris de le venger de l'injustice que lui font nos écrivains. Ils nous le donnent comme un génie sublime, et comme un homme des plus admirables, par la grandeur de ses entreprises, de ses vue, de ses succès'', [[Claude-Adrien Nonnotte]]</ref><ref>''Les erreurs de Voltaire'', Jacquenod père et Rusand, 1770, Vol I, p. 70.</ref><ref>''M. de Voltaire nous assure qu'il [Mahomet] avait une éloquence vive et forte, des yeux perçants, une physionomie heureuse, l'intrépidité d'Alexandre, la libéralité et la sobriété dont Alexandre aurait eu besoin pour être un grand homme en tout ... Il nous représente Mahomet comme un homme qui a eu la gloire de tirer presque toute l'Asie des ténèbres de l'idolâtrie. Il extrait quelques paroles de divers endroits de l'Alcoran, dont il admire le Sublime. Il trouve que sa loi est extrêmement sage, que ses lois civiles sont bonnes et que son dogme est admirable en ce qu'il se conforme avec le nôtre. Enfin pour prémunir les lecteurs contre tout ce que les Chrétiens ont dit méchamment de Mahomet, il avertit que ce ne sont guère que des sottises débitées par des moines ignorants et insensés.'', Nonnotte, p. 71.</ref> This did not hinder his religious practice, though it did win for him a bad reputation in certain religious circles. The deeply Christian [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] wrote to his father the year of Voltaire's death, saying, "The arch-scoundrel Voltaire has finally kicked the bucket ..."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keffe |first=Simon P. |title=The Cambridge Companion to Mozart |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-521-00192-7 |series=[[Cambridge Companions to Music]]}}</ref> Voltaire was later deemed to influence [[Edward Gibbon]] in claiming that Christianity was a contributor to the fall of the Roman Empire in his book ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'':<blockquote>As Christianity advances, disasters befall the [Roman] empire—arts, science, literature, decay—barbarism and all its revolting concomitants are made to seem the consequences of its decisive triumph—and the unwary reader is conducted, with matchless dexterity, to the desired conclusion—the abominable Manicheism of ''Candide'', and, in fact, of all the productions of Voltaire's historic school—viz., "that instead of being a merciful, ameliorating, and benignant visitation, the religion of Christians would rather seem to be a scourge sent on man by the author of all evil."<ref>{{Cite journal |year=1840 |title=Gibbon; or, the Infidel Historian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JItKAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA208 |journal=[[Dublin Review (Catholic periodical)|The Dublin Review]] |publisher=Burns, Oates and Washbourne |volume=8 |page=208}}</ref></blockquote>

However, Voltaire also acknowledged the self-sacrifice of Christians. He wrote: "Perhaps there is nothing greater on earth than the sacrifice of youth and beauty, often of high birth, made by the gentle sex in order to work in hospitals for the relief of human misery, the sight of which is so revolting to our delicacy. Peoples separated from the Roman religion have imitated but imperfectly so generous a charity."<ref>Thomas E. Woods, ''How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization'' (Regnery Publishing 2005) pp. 169–70</ref> Yet, according to [[Daniel-Rops]], Voltaire's "hatred of religion increased with the passage of years. The attack, launched at first against clericalism and theocracy, ended in a furious assault upon Holy Scripture, the dogmas of the Church, and even upon the person of Jesus Christ Himself, who [he] depicted now as a degenerate."<ref name="Daniel-Rops1964">{{Cite book |last=Daniel-Rops |first=Henri |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5gsAQAAMAAJ |title=History of the Church of Christ |publisher=Dutton |year=1964 |page=47 |quote=His hatred of religion increased with the passage of years. The attack, launched at first against clericalism and theocracy, ended in a furious assault upon Holy Scripture, the dogmas of the Church, and even upon the person of Jesus Christ Himself, who was depicted now as a degenerate |author-link=Daniel-Rops}}</ref> Voltaire's reasoning may be summed up in his well-known saying, "[[q:Voltaire|Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities]]."