Voltaire Quotes
I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.
Voltaire was also an amateur scientist and was familiar with the new physics of Newton. His mistress, was one of the best scientists in France and the translator of Newton into French. Voltaire marveled at the logic that drove the universe and assumed that there must have been a prime mover. At the same time, although believing in God, Voltaire, like many other intellectuals of the time, were major enemies of organized religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular. See {621191} .
Voltaire, 1694-1778, [Francois-Marie Arouet], French Historian & Dramatist Quoted in Robert L. Weber, More Random Walks in Science : An Anthology, 1982
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This particular quotation was very damaging to Christians of the era. Voltaire was almost universally regarded as the greatest mind of Europe at the time. He was consulted by powerful monarchs and others throughout Europe. He influenced major figures of the day like Catherine the Great. Voltaire did believe in God. See {621200}.
This quotation is very interesting with reference to the modern debate about teaching creationism in the public schools. Two hundred years before, Shelly observed that before we can debate as to who was the designer, we must first prove that there was a design. He was skeptical, and this was before Darwin and modern astronomy. Today there are physicists who have shown how the Big Bang might have taken place without any plan, design or creation. And evolution explains how mankind and other life forms may have evolved without any specific species management or design.
At the time, it was very difficult for people who had been taught all their lives that God was directly responsible for the creation to accept the notion of evolution. At the time, there was not the overwhelming evidence proving Darwin’s theory that we have today. Nor did theologians realize that evolution and Darwinism were not inconsistent with the concept of a creator and supreme being. Nonetheless, there are still those who, like Agassiz, reject evolution and insist that the Biblical version of creation is literally true. See {586990}. Then there are people who have come up with the concept of Intelligent Design which originated with Agassiz though he never called it that. Most religious people today, in contrast, see no conflict in natural selection as described by Darwin and later proven, and the concept of God. They see the Biblical creation as metaphorical and natural selection as the product of an omniscient supreme being.
- Born: November 21, 1694
- Died: May 30, 1778
- Nationality: French
- Profession: Writer, Philosopher
François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire (/vɒlˈtɛər, voʊl-/; also US: /vɔːl-/; French: [vɔltɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity—especially the Roman Catholic Church—as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state.
