by Lewis Loflin
Voltaire’s smug line drips with elitism—and worse. Internet Deists flip out when I tag him an atheist, or functional atheist, but Arthur Herman calls him the “taproot” of Enlightenment Deism’s godless strain (The Cave and the Light, p. 233). This isn’t Jefferson’s “Nature’s God” or America’s Deist roots (see English Deism)—it’s an anti-Semitic, aristocratic bigot’s blueprint for secular chaos, lapped up by modern Internet Deists.
Voltaire (1694-1778) kicked off as a Deist—England (1726-1729) with Bolingbroke sold him on reason and tolerance (Cliffs Notes, Candide). He dug Locke and Newton’s active God (see English Rationalism). Then Lisbon’s 1755 earthquake (40,000 dead) and the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) hit. Clerics cried divine wrath; Voltaire saw a crapshoot, not Providence. By 1756, he traded Deism’s God for Aristotle’s Prime Mover—a cosmic shrug. Functionally atheist, he kept the Deist tag for show.
His Jesuit education (1704-1711) was Greek-heavy—Plato, Aristotle, no theology. He mocked Christianity as Platonist man-worship (Jefferson nodded, calling it “atheism”). But Voltaire’s venom went wider—vicious anti-Semitism targeted Jews, Europe’s powerless scapegoats, proving his “tolerance” was selective. He talked “mankind” while living it up with aristocrats—Frederick the Great included—far from the poor he claimed to champion.
French Deism, via Voltaire, torched English theism (see French Deism). Herman notes he swapped God for Aristotle to gut the Catholic Church—corrupt, yes, but his real beef was faith itself. Rousseau’s Social Contract (1762) doubled down—rights as state handouts, not divine gifts. Voltaire’s “freedom and justice” was elitist cant; his spoons quip shows he saw the masses as thieves to be controlled, not freed. He partied with aristocrats—Frederick the Great, even Catherine the Great—while sneering at the poor he claimed to uplift.
Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Russia’s Prussian-born empress, complicates this. Will Durant pegs her as a Deist, or at least Deism-curious, sipping Enlightenment ideas from Voltaire himself—they swapped letters for years. She staged a coup in 1762, ditching her husband Peter III, and ruled as an “enlightened despot.” She pushed education, arts, and law reform—the Nakaz (1767) aped Montesquieu—but kept absolute power. Russia’s royal family, like most, cared little for the people’s welfare; serfs stayed shackled, and her expansions (Crimea, Poland) fattened the empire, not the peasants. Her Deism, if real, was a veneer—reason as a tool for glory, not uplift, much like Voltaire’s own hypocrisy.
The French Revolution (1789-1799) was Voltaire’s spawn anyway. The Cult of Reason (1792-94) trashed churches—Notre Dame of Strasbourg became a “Temple of Reason”—with a “Goddess” on parade (see Cult of Reason). Robespierre, Voltaire’s Deist fanboy, flipped it to the Cult of the Supreme Being (1794), but his Terror (1793-94) echoed Voltaire’s disdain—heads rolled, not spoons clinked. Both fed on Voltaire’s aristocratic double-talk: preaching virtue, practicing privilege. Catherine watched, wary—her Russia dodged that chaos, but not out of love for the serfs.
Label Voltaire an atheist, and Internet Deists rage—he’s their icon. They echo his anti-theism and bigotry, not his early Deism or English kin (Herbert, Newton). Their “Deism” is Voltaire’s endgame: no Providence, just reason-worship. America’s founders—Jefferson, Franklin—stuck to theism; Voltaire’s crew birthed chaos. Rousseau’s socialism and Robespierre’s guillotines prove it (see Rousseau: An Interesting Madman).
The Enlightenment’s “critical questioning” (Wikipedia) worked for England’s reform, not France’s nihilism. America skipped Catholic tyranny—tolerance took root early. Voltaire’s Europe rotted under elitists like him, wining with monarchs while damning faith. His anti-Semitism—Jews as “ignorant and barbarous” (Philosophical Dictionary)—and aristocratic chumminess expose the lie of his “justice.”
Lisbon and war killed Voltaire’s optimism; climate woes (Little Ice Age) and famine lit France’s fuse. America, healthier and less battered, held Providence—our Revolution built, theirs burned. Today’s elite ape Voltaire’s scorn, trading liberty for statist “rights” (see Deism Origins). His spoons jab—caring more for silver than souls—foreshadows social ills I’ll hit next time.
Cliffs Notes, Candide; The Cave and the Light by Arthur Herman; Wikipedia; Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire; Will Durant’s works.
Thanks to Grok (xAI) for drafting aid. My edits, my take, with nods to T.E. Wilder’s work.
Thanks to Grok (xAI) for drafting aid. My edits, my take, with nods to T.E. Wilder’s work.
