The argument vacillates between the obvious and the inaccurate--obvious, like in grad school, when one of my fellow students up after someone's talk and, stroking the book he was holding, asked if the point of the talk could be summed up by "Grotius's remark, if I may say it, that we must not burn each other;" inaccurate, as in Voltaire's lengthy, unnecessary, and pointless attempt to prove that nobody had ever been religiously intolerant before Christianity and, more particularly, before the 18th century in France. But holy hell is this great invective and rhetoric, including the all time great gem about everyone having enough religion to hate, but insufficient to love one another. It's worth remembering, in the era of Daesh and Sam Harris, that Voltaire believed in God (and so Harris really shouldn't imagine he's in this lineage, leaving aside the laughable gap in writing ability), and didn't believe in burning people. He was an asshole, sure, but in his own, unique way. ( )

Grand Monsieur, en avance sur son temps!!! Et toujours d'actualité!!! Excellente leçon de Tolérance, même si parfois il n'est pas facile et aisé de «combattre» verbalement la médiocrité de beaucoup!!! ( )

100 VOLT 3

100 VOLT 2