Tolerance according to Voltaire, brief treatise on how to live together in perfect harmony

The need for tolerance in today’s world

Slightly overwhelmed by the divisions, polarities, dialogues of the deaf that have been predominant in the news over the past years, I have looked for solace in the writings of Voltaire, a wise man who stands out in the Age of Enlightenment. In 1763 (that is, over 250 years ago!), outraged by superstition, fanaticism, dogmatism, he wrote a little gem, “The treatise on tolerance”.  I invite you to read it because it is amazingly topical. It is short and it gets straight to the point. It conveys something that we are all in dire need of: worldwide tolerance.

In a densely populated world in which the earth’s resources (drinking water, forests, farmland, natural resources, etc.) are increasingly scarce, wars and climate related phenomena force entire populations to migrate.  It is therefore vital to learn to live together harmoniously and to look into the meaning of tolerance, a concept that is still much too abstract for most of us: we talk about it but when we have to put it into practice, it is quite another matter.

In fact, over the past years, dialogues of the deaf have prevailed in newspaper articles, on the internet and in debates between political parties and religions. Instead of promoting tolerance, we are submerged by messages encouraging intolerance.

In this article I will submit some excerpts from the Treatise on Tolerance that I consider relevant. I must confess that I was moved by Voltaire’s amazing open-mindedness, by the passionate way in which he maintains that religions should be based on mutual love rather than hate. Unfortunately men have distorted them, creating discord.  I therefore invite you to return to the sources, to stop and think, and to open yourselves to others instead of “half reasoning”, to quote Voltaire.

Voltaire’s Treatise

Voltaire wrote the Treatise on Tolerance in a century in which religious wars were still causing slaughters throughout Europe, particularly in France because of the division between Catholics and Huguenots (even though both factions adhered to Christianity!).
The Treatise on tolerance draws inspiration from, and is subsequent to, the trial, death sentence and execution of Jean Calas, a Huguenot father, on the 10th of March 1762.  Jean Calas belonged to a protestant family.  Following the death by presumed suicide of their eldest son, the Calas family is falsely accused of culpable homicide.  The family is kept in shackles and the father, by popular demand and by order of 13 judges, is condemned to death despite lack of evidence.
Following the execution of Jean Calas, who pleads his innocence to the day of his death, the case is retried in Paris on the 9th of March 1765 and the Calas family is rehabilitated.

Voltaire’s wisdom and clairvoyance

Throughout the book Voltaire gives several examples of how superstition, dogmatism, fanaticism have caused damages in Europe and demonstrates how the numerous Roman and Greek gods as well as early Judaism and Christianity, among others, advocated tolerance.
Let me quote Voltaire: “The fury which inspires the dogmatic spirit and the abuse if the ill-inspired Christian religion have shed as much blood, have caused as many disasters in Germany, in England and even Holland as they have in France.  However, today the difference between religions does not cause any trouble in those Countries; Jews, Catholics, Greeks, Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists, Socinians, Mennonites, Moravians, and many others, live together like brothers in those nations and, moreover,  they contribute to the well-being of society.”

More from Voltaire: “One would think that we have vowed to hate our brothers, because our religion is appropriate for hatred and persecution, but it is inappropriate for love and assistance.” “Finally, tolerance has never engendered civil wars; intolerance has covered the earth with blood.”…. “The right to intolerance is therefore absurd and barbaric: it is the right of tigers, and a rather horrible right at that, because tigers only kill each other in order to eat, whereas we are slaughtered because of a few paragraphs.” And he concludes: “Men must therefore start by renouncing fanaticism in order to deserve tolerance.”

I was struck by the topicality of these excerpts. “Yet among all superstitions, isn’t hating our fellow man for his opinions the most dangerous one?  And isn’t it obvious that adoring the holy navel, the holy foreskin, the Virgin Mary’s milk and robe would be much more reasonable than detesting and persecuting one’s brother?”

The conclusion of the Treatise on Tolerance, “A prayer to God”

Voltaire closes his Treatise on Tolerance with a little gem, “A Prayer to God” that I would like to quote in its entirety.  I want to point out that in this prayer Voltaire, a Catholic, addresses a universal God, who could be the God of all religions, but also of atheists who are often endowed with a profound spirituality. Voltaire’s God is a God that unites, not a God that divides.

A PRAYER TO GOD
It is no longer to people that I speak; it is to you, God of all beings, of all worlds, and of all times: if we feeble creatures, lost in the immensity of the universe, and invisible to the rest of it, are allowed to ask anything of you, you who have given everything and whose decrees are as unchanging as they are eternal, then may you deign to have pity on the errors inherent in our nature; may these errors not be our undoing.

You did not give us a heart so that we could hate each other, nor hands so we could slit each other’s throats; help us to help each other endure the burden of this painful and brief life; may the tiny differences between the clothes which cover our feeble bodies, between our inadequate languages, between our ridiculous customs, between all our imperfect laws, our absurd opinions, between all our circumstances, so disproportionate in our eyes and yet so equal before yours; may all these tiny variations which differentiate the atoms called humans not be the triggers of hatred and persecution; may those who light candles at midday in adoration of you learn to tolerate those who simply bask in the light of your sun; may those who wrap a white cloth round their robes to express the command to love you not hate those who say the same thing under a coat of black wool; may it be equally acceptable to adore you in the jargon of an ancient language or of a more recent one; may those whose clothes are dyed red or violet and who rule over a small plot on a little heap of the mud of this world, and who happen to possess some rounded pieces of a certain metal, enjoy what they call greatness and riches without pride, and may others view them without envy: for you know that there is nothing to envy or boast about in these vanities.

May all men remember that they are brothers! May they abhor the tyranny wielded over souls, as they ever execrate the violent theft of the fruits of hard work and peaceful industry! If the scourge of war is inevitable, let us not hate each other, let us not tear each other apart when we are at peace. Let us spend the brief moment of our existence blessing, together and in a thousand different languages, from Siam to California, your goodness in bestowing on us this moment.

And now it’s up to us

Voltaire left us this message over 250 years ago.  Now it is up to us to put it into practice and make the most of it in our daily life.
I invite you to perform a very simple action that I also try to accomplish (even though I have to admit that it isn’t always easy!).  When you are in a meeting in which each party wants to be right or else you are face to face with another person who has a different opinion, instead of arguing for your point of view, I invite you to ask questions that will unblock and appease, questions that begin with:
– For whom
– Why (what for)
– How
And, naturally, let the other person express his/her opinion to the end, without interrupting…bearing in mind Voltaire’s words.

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