Voltaire believed in the search for morality in reason; in his philosophical dictionary, he stated, “We cannot repeat too frequently that dogmas differ, but that morality is the same among all men who make use of their reason. Morality proceeds from God, like light; our superstitions are only darkness.”12 But Voltaire plainly considered Judeo-Christian tradition superstitious; his writings are filled with nasty asides against Jews in particular. Like an eighteenth-century Bill Maher, Voltaire delighted in ridiculing the most facially ridiculous statements of the Bible and declaring the Bible’s
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