Voltaire’s criticism of religious beliefs and practices

Abstract

Voltaire fought his intellectual battles on many fronts. In this paper, I will focus on only three of them: the battle against religions, the battle against the beliefs of philoso­phers, and the battle against Catholic Poles. Each of them is guided by Voltaire’s challenge: “écrason l’infame.” This can be translated as a call to “crush wickedness.” However, the term “l’infame” has more meanings, because in French it also means disgrace, meanness, insult, and something invented. This ambiguity was used by Voltaire on these and oth­er fronts. However, they have different weights. He attached the greatest importance to the struggle against religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. He associated it with the fight against those philosophers who either did not clearly distance themselves from them or even supported them in their own way. The appearance of writings against Catholic Poles does not play such a significant role in the overall balance of Voltaire’s writing achievements, but it constitutes an important “eastern wing” of the fight against Christianity.