voltaire :: essays research papers

Voltaire said that If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him and I concur. Voltaire was trying to say that politenesss need a higher power to successfully work. Throughout history, every civilization (with the exception of those developed in the twentieth century) has had a god, or gods to explain the wonders of the natural world and provide guidance. From the ancient cultures of the nerve center East and Asia to modern day western civilization, gods have played a major role in daily life. Voltaire more than likely knew that a civilization without order and a governing force would most certainly fail. As much as people shape to these gods for direction and explanation, they also turn to those uniform gods for discipline. What could possibly keep a person form committing wrong more than a person or thing with the capability (or fabled capability) of striking them set down where they stand? Gods stand as method of keeping people in line so to speak. I know that as a child in a semi-devout roman catholic family, the fear of God idea may very well have stopped me from performing terrible atrocities (that is, atrocious in the scope of being a small child). No matter what, that fear of God has, and may very well always stand as the mavin supreme police force in the world. There have even been examples of godless societies throughout this century in literature, and even reality. Orwells classic 1949 tonic 1984 depicts a twisted dystopia in which the government has eradicated gods and any other non-governmental aspect of life. The book, in one of the many sub-concepts of the work, shows the quality of life of the broken-spirited souls who have nothing to turn to for hope, or an end after the means. Orwell, like many other authors including Aldus Huxley in A Brave New World, shows that a society without god will imminently dissolve to failure.