Voltaire

6.

In my next few blogs, I'll talk about philosophers or philosophical topics that we didn't talk about in class because I've run out of things to blog about (or I'm just bored with Pojman).

On a side note, I used one of Voltaire's quotes/aphorisms for my senior quote: "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." Meaning that (at least what I think it means) individually, people do not feel responsible when something on a larger scale happens that they have inadvertently effected.

Voltaire also had an interesting view on religion. He believed that, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." However, because of this, many people thought of him as an atheist. Reading this line makes me think that people invent "God" for the simple reason why we invent anything else. We "invent" God so we can feel better about our lives. We "invent" technology so we can live more comfortably. Etc.

Voltaire also said, "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason." This, again, is interesting because he insisting that faith is reason-- that to believe is to reason.