se immortality and irreligion. Mortality can exist without religion; and religion, perhaps, even exits frequently with immortality” (Course Pak, Chapter 2, pg. 157). Further Diderot sites the Fathers of a council of Toledo in his definition of “intolerance” where they state “do no violence of any kind to people in order to lead them back to faith, for God is merciful or severe to whomever he chooses” (Course Pak, Chapter 2, pg. 156). By siting the fathers, Diderot masterfully escapes censorship while fighting the churches belligerence with its own words.Catholic Habsurg emperor Joseph II championed the philosophy of tolerance in 1781 in the Edict of Toleration. The Edict granted Jews and Catholics the same religious and civil rights, this was the first time such an act was condoned by a Catholic Habsburg ruler. In addition it also tried to limit the power of the Catholic Church by ordering the dissolution of numerous monasteries which were useless and corrupt. (The Western Experience, pg. 660).While tolerance proved to be an important concept of the enlightenment, deism was indeed the primary religious doctrine. Voltaire, one of the Enlightenment’s most prolific writers was an outspoken champion of deism, which unites religion and reason. In his best seller The Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote, in theology “we find man’s insanity in all its plenitude” and goes on to say “organized religion is not simply false but pernicious” (The Western Experience, pg. 660). Deism was his alternative to the false world that organized religion fostered. It “recognized” God as the creator but held that the world once created functions according to natural laws without interference by God. (The Western Experience, pg. 660). Deists professed that religion should be a matter of private contemplation rather than public display. Ultimately, they believed humanity functions o...
