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The words spoken by Gianni Infantino, the President of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), during his press conference held in Doha on November 19, 2022, a day before the start of the FIFA World Cup, constitute a unique testimony regarding European history. He said, "What we have done as Europeans over the past 3,000 years, we must apologize for over the next 3,000 years before giving moral lessons to others."

Although these words did not come from a thinker, historian, or philosopher, they are the closest commentary to the course of European history, filled with wars, conflicts, violations, massacres, despotism, and political and religious heresies, from the dawn of European history until shortly after World War II, in a manner unprecedented within any other nation or people. We mention this within the context of our discussion in this series about the journey of ethics throughout successive European eras.

This dark history was not limited to Europe alone; it also extended beyond its borders through successive and warring European colonial campaigns, reaching all the countries they colonized across the four corners of the Earth during the 18th and 19th centuries, and even into the second half of the 20th century.

The European mentality continues to draw from this history in one way or another to this day. What the West is currently doing in terms of changing the world under the guise of what is known as sustainable development goals is nothing but a new form of economic and technological colonization, armed with a massive arsenal of destructive military power, under catchy slogans, flashy expressions, deceptive and misleading ideas, leading the world towards the abyss of collapse. It has reached the point of destroying the moral order and directing humanity towards the destruction of human nature, as well as altering the family and social structure.

This is an extension of the intellectual, political, and scientific transformations witnessed in previous centuries, which sought to overthrow the tyranny of political, religious, and feudal authorities that dominated the state and society, as we have presented in this series.

Pioneers of the Call for Atheism

In the previous article, we discussed several pioneers of the rationalist movement that prevailed in the first part of the Enlightenment era until the first half of the 18th century. This period was characterized by the demand for religious reform and the elevation of the status of reason.

However, this demand began to take a different direction in the second half of the 18th century, as the battle intensified between advocates of the rationalist approach and zealous religious opponents of religious reform, sparked by the writings of philosophers who called for the dominance of reason and the separation of religion from the state.

While English and German philosophers in this period focused on reforming and purifying religion from impurities, French philosophers adopted a destructive and atheistic approach that was hostile to religion. They established new philosophical concepts in ethics that overturned everything related to religion and its divine teachings. We will highlight three of the most prominent pioneers of this direction: Voltaire, Diderot, and Holbach.

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), famously known by his pen name "Voltaire," was a French poet, playwright, and philosopher. He was one of the prominent pioneers of the European Enlightenment, advocating for social reform and freedom of belief. Voltaire criticized René Descartes' philosophical approach based on doubt and strongly supported the ideas of the English scientist and philosopher Isaac Newton, who advocated for the experimental scientific method. He coined the motto "Crush the infamy" as a response to religious fanaticism throughout Europe.

Despite Voltaire's bold criticism of the Church and religious fanaticism and his influence in escalating rebellious movements against religion and the Church, he was careful not to be classified as an atheist or an enemy of religion and the Church. He repeatedly stated that he did not fight against religion and faith but against superstitions, extremism, and the oppressive authority of the Church.

Voltaire believed in the existence of a creator, but he placed his faith in reason and nature. He viewed religious texts as legal and ethical references that had become outdated and were man-made rather than divine gifts. With such positions, he became one of the pioneers whose ideas sparked the French and American revolutions.

Voltaire made great efforts to understand the nature of human existence and the concept of morality within a universe governed by rational principles and impersonal laws. He adopted a middle ground between the strict determinism of materialistic rationalists and the lofty spirituality of Christian theologians.

For Voltaire, humans were not mere deterministic machines driven by matter and motion; therefore, free will existed. However, humans were also natural beings governed by unyielding natural laws. He believed that religion served as a necessary guarantee for social order.

Voltaire's ethical philosophy relied on the doctrine of pleasure and the combination of freedom and pleasure to maximize enjoyment and minimize pain. This was reflected in expressions containing sexual arousal and innuendos in some of his writings. His celebration of moral freedom through sexual freedom became a central feature of his philosophical identity, writings, and liberated behaviour, leading conservatives to accuse him of undermining social order.

Voltaire's ethical philosophy was based on the doctrine of pleasure and the combination of freedom and pleasure to maximize enjoyment and minimize pain. This was reflected in expressions containing sexual arousal and innuendos in some of his writings. His celebration of moral freedom through sexual freedom became a central feature of his philosophical identity, writings, and liberated behaviour, leading conservatives to accuse him of undermining social order.

This made Voltaire a pioneer in ethics based on personal pleasure, particularly of a physical nature. He continued his attack on repressive demands that were hostile to human nature, created by traditional Christian asceticism and celibate priesthood, with their moral rules to control sexual desire and renounce bodily self-indulgence.

It seems that Voltaire's contradictory behaviour, criticizing religion and the Church sharply while emphasizing his faith, was due to his fear of being arrested, punished by authorities, or killed by zealous religious individuals. This was something other philosophers did not experience, such as Holbach and Diderot, did not experience. The latter of which will be the topic of the next post.

Previous Parts

A Philosophical Journey (1): Moralphobia
A Philosophical Journey (2): How Does The Moral Struggle Manifest In Islam?
A Philosophical Journey (3): Ethics In The Space Of The Greeks And The Darkness Of The Middle Ages
A Philosophical Journey (4): Western View Of Ethics In The Renaissance
A Philosophical Journey (5): Conflict of Ethics and the Age of Enlightenment
A Philosophical Journey (6): The Age of Enlightenment and the Tendencies of the Revolution of Reason.