The 1700s French philosopher François-Marie Arouet – Voltaire, who lived at the time of the French Revolution has been hailed as the secular “apostle of tolerance.”
Yet, his values were the exact opposite of tolerant, setting the tone for what was later to come: Socialist tyranny and free speech only for those who agree with the liberal agenda. All the rest are to be bullied, persecuted and silenced in the most brazen, totalitarian way.
Voltaire became famous for stating the importance of tolerance, saying: “I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The sentence has been immensely admired in the West, quoted millions of times as a reflection of a leading “secular Western ideal” at the dawn of atheism, writes Hanne Nabintu Herland, historian of religions, bestselling author, and columnist at World Net Daily, WND, USA’s largest conservative news network. She is the founder of The Herland Report and its corresponding YouTube Channel and Podcast.
The leftwing proclamation of “tolerance and diversity” is, in reality, the very opposite: Tolerance only for the leftwing groups and a remarkably tough stance against conservatives and those who wanted to keep the traditional, historical values that once made the West such a great civilization.
The current New Left trend of speaking with a “double tongue” – hailing freedom of expression, democracy, and tolerance, yet using it to repress the groups that disagree with them – this was seen already in the work of Voltaire.
Voltaire spoke highly of tolerance, yet practiced the very opposite. He was famous for his immense hatred towards the Christian Church and the religious traditions in his time. His writings are filled with the very opposite than respect for the right to differ in opinion.
For example, “Christianity is the most ridiculous and the most absurd bloody religion that has ever infected the world” or “Theological religion is the source of all imaginable follies and disturbances. It is the parent of all fanaticism and civil disorder. It is the enemy of mankind.”
Yet, his discontent with life and disturbed mind is apparent in yet another quote: “I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life.”
This was the beginning of the revolt against the very values that made the West a great civilization hailed by men like Voltaire who proclaimed: “The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.” He died in 1787, a few years before the 1789 revolution in France.
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Precisely the demand for tolerance has been portrayed as a secular ideal, yet was but a copy of the Christian view of humanity, based on the belief that all peoples, regardless of class, gender or race, have a fundamental human value. Voltaire did not develop this altruistic ideal in a vacuum, but rather, it derived from Christian philosophy.
Many of the angry philosophers who had such a grudge towards Christian philosophy reflect more than anything lack of knowledge of the very faith they criticized.
Voltaire says: “The Bible. That is what fools have written, what imbeciles command, what rogues teach, and what young children are taught to learn by heart.”
So, the very values that Voltaire detests are the very same he professes to pursue.
He voices the need for tolerance – itself a religious principle demonstrated by Jesus during his lifetime. The Bible, and especially the first four books in the New Testament, and find the accounts of how Jesus demonstrated tolerance, respect for the weak, empathy with the dying, kindness to the unwanted. Were these the values that Voltaire hated?
It was Christian theology in the Middle Ages and Spanish scholasticism that formed the basis of what we today call human rights. Before that, Athenian democracy spoke of the need for public debates and arenas in which intellectuals could discuss morality, politics, and social issues in a civil manner.
Yet, Voltaire’s writings are permeated with a reeking dislike of seemingly religion in general, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, with no respect for religious freedom.
Upon Voltaire’s death, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart allegedly burst out, saying that “the arch-scoundrel Voltaire has finally kicked the bucket.”
It may be argued that Voltaire was one of the founding fathers of a totalitarian lack of respect for tolerance, making him one of the grand hypocrites of his time.
