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What did Voltaire mean?

Lark

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What did Voltaire mean when he said that:

"If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him"
 

Lady_X

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that we all need the belief..we need reward and punishment...we need to feel not alone...watched over...that someone else is responsible and somewhere somehow it all males sense.
 

Haight

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Religion is an efficient device for controlling large groups of people.
 

Lady_X

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that was meant to be implied in my post as well but i'm not sure that it was so...i'll just agree...um...yep.. :)
 

Halla74

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Voltaire was a conceited Frenchman.
My friend, Fergus, once said that "GOD" was an acronym for "Government Ordered Discipline," LOL!
Honestly, I don't get much out of organized religion, but I don't scoff at those who do.
I'm at peace with the God of my understanding.
To each their own, just don't try to sell me on dogma that is not of my own choosing.
My reply to such attempts will forever be "Go fuck yourself."

:solidarity:

-Alex
 

Mole

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Canberra, Theosophy, Sacred Geomentry, and the Invention of God

What did Voltaire mean when he said that:

"If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him"

It is necessary to invent God to understand Canberra.

For Canberra is a designed, garden city. And it was designed from high above the Molonglo River flowing through the Limestone Plains.

So the design of Canberra only makes sense from the God's-eye view. So to design Canberra, we needed to invent God first.

But we are not ungrateful for the wonderful view, for we designed Canberra using God's own principles of Theosophy and Sacred Geometry. Click on -

http://theosophydownunder.org/libra...cts-of-its-design-compiled-by-evelynne-brown/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLlADcMYqss

So to build the City of God, naturally we had to invent God first.
 

wildcat

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What did Voltaire mean when he said that:

"If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him"

The God man created is the man God created.
The man God created is not the God man created.
 

tinker683

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I suppose it could be taken any number of ways, depending on how you define God.

For me, I would interpret this as "God", in this context, is an ideal for which we as men should aspire to be and that it would be in our best interest to make one if need to be to better ourselves.

My 2 cents.
 

Coriolis

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What did Voltaire mean when he said that:

"If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him"
I would have to study more of Voltaire's writing to get a better sense of what he probably did mean, but as a first cut: humanity has a need to believe there is something greater than itself. We deify whatever we put into that position.
 
T

ThatGirl

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I think what is being stated here is that if God didn't exist, we as people could create him to serve us. Of course, then he would ban us all to hell for worshiping false gods and considering ourselves equal to or capable of the same things as god, so we would actually be the anti-christ if you REALLY think about it. But we could work out the kinks as we go.
 

Orangey

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Apparently he wrote that in response to a publication by an atheist group which he deemed dangerous to society. He was defending the need for religious belief on the basis that it deters crime.

So basically it means the same thing as when we say that religion is a "noble lie." Except he was earnest about it, not cynical.
 

Mal12345

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What did Voltaire mean when he said that:

"If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him"

The rest of the quote goes on to say, "...But all nature cries aloud that He does exist."

Voltaire had quite a way with rhetoric. Here he is just being dramatic about his theism in addressing some anti-God pamphlet he must have read.

The quoted part about nature probably refers to St. Thomas Aquinas' fifth proof of the existence of God.

http://www.saintaquinas.com/belief_in_God.html
"Thomas Aquinas says that the order of nature presupposes a higher plan in creation. The laws governing the universe presuppose a universal legislature who authored the order of the universe. We cannot say that chance creates order in the universe. If you drop a cup on the floor it shatters into bits and has become disordered. But if you were to drop bits of the cup, they would not assemble together into a cup. This is an example of the inherent disorder prevalent in the universe when things are left to chance. The existence of order and natural laws presupposes a divine intelligence who authored the universe into being."
 
G

Ginkgo

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The rest of the quote goes on to say, "...But all nature cries aloud that He does exist."

Voltaire had quite a way with rhetoric. Here he is just being dramatic about his theism in addressing some anti-God pamphlet he must have read.

The quoted part about nature probably refers to St. Thomas Aquinas' fifth proof of the existence of God.

http://www.saintaquinas.com/belief_in_God.html
"Thomas Aquinas says that the order of nature presupposes a higher plan in creation. The laws governing the universe presuppose a universal legislature who authored the order of the universe. We cannot say that chance creates order in the universe. If you drop a cup on the floor it shatters into bits and has become disordered. But if you were to drop bits of the cup, they would not assemble together into a cup. This is an example of the inherent disorder prevalent in the universe when things are left to chance. The existence of order and natural laws presupposes a divine intelligence who authored the universe into being."

Finally someone got it right.
 

Mole

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God and the Shrink

The rest of the quote goes on to say, "...But all nature cries aloud that He does exist."

Voltaire had quite a way with rhetoric. Here he is just being dramatic about his theism in addressing some anti-God pamphlet he must have read.

The quoted part about nature probably refers to St. Thomas Aquinas' fifth proof of the existence of God.

http://www.saintaquinas.com/belief_in_God.html
"Thomas Aquinas says that the order of nature presupposes a higher plan in creation. The laws governing the universe presuppose a universal legislature who authored the order of the universe. We cannot say that chance creates order in the universe. If you drop a cup on the floor it shatters into bits and has become disordered. But if you were to drop bits of the cup, they would not assemble together into a cup. This is an example of the inherent disorder prevalent in the universe when things are left to chance. The existence of order and natural laws presupposes a divine intelligence who authored the universe into being."

The problem is that God has been done our of a job. He is no longer needed to create the species, as we now know that natural selection created the species.

And it only get worse for God, for he is no longer needed to create our universe because our measurements of the background radiation show that our universe is flat, that is, the sum total of all the energy in our universe is zero, that is, nothing.

They keep on telling us that nothing comes from nothing, but we now know that our nothing came from nothing.

God is now unemployed. Sacrficing his son made no difference. The only option left for God is therapy. I know it is a bit of a come-down from the Creator of the Universe. Thank heavens the whole purpose of therapy is to shrink the ego, that's why we go to a shrink.
 

Mal12345

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The problem is that God has been done our of a job. He is no longer needed to create the species, as we now know that natural selection created the species.

And it only get worse for God, for he is no longer needed to create our universe because our measurements of the background radiation show that our universe is flat, that is, the sum total of all the energy in our universe is zero, that is, nothing.

They keep on telling us that nothing comes from nothing, but we now know that our nothing came from nothing.

God is now unemployed. Sacrficing his son made no difference. The only option left for God is therapy. I know it is a bit of a come-down from the Creator of the Universe. Thank heavens the whole purpose of therapy is to shrink the ego, that's why we go to a shrink.

"We"? Would you have multiple personality disorder, by any chance?
 

Mole

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"We"? Would you have multiple personality disorder, by any chance?

Good heavens no. However I have stopped being a literate individual calling myself, "I", and, "We", have become a tribal members of Central.

So, "I", like God, is dead, and, "We", rises gloriously in its place.

Still, we respect your time of mourning for a God who has been with us for 200,000 years and only recently became ill and passed on.

We know how you feel.
 

Mal12345

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Good heavens no. However I have stopped being a literate individual calling myself, "I", and, "We", have become a tribal members of Central.

So, "I", like God, is dead, and, "We", rises gloriously in its place.

Still, we respect your time of mourning for a God who has been with us for 200,000 years and only recently became ill and passed on.

We know how you feel.

Have you ever read or heard of the novel "Anthem" by Ayn Rand?
 
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