What did Voltaire mean by "if God didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him"?

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NonServiam said:
Living becomes its own point.
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Your statement, in order to function correctly as an objective truth, would require life to have an objective value. Otherwise it is a subjective and meaningless statement; a point to “living” is as meaningless as it is objectively insignificant in the absence of purpose. Life just is and has no value. You are merely a reorganization of energy. Your thoughts are merely the product of atomic processes. Those processes merely expressed a subjective desire, and not an objective truth. There is no point, for “point” presupposes an objective teleological meaning to things, that we are here to do something.
 
shoe said:
But since God does exist, it isn’t necessary to invent Him.
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It is necessary to reinvent him if he commands me to have sex only in marriage. I would rather close my eyes to the existence of that God, and pretend that he really wants me to have as much sex as i possibly can in any way shape or form.

Tell me why not.
 
MindOverMatter2 said:
It is necessary to reinvent him if he commands me to have sex only in marriage. I would rather close my eyes to the existence of that God, and pretend that he really wants me to have as much sex as i possibly can in any way shape or form.

Tell me why not.
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The answer is off topic. There are multiple threads on this site discussing why not. A simple search will reveal them to you.
 
davidv said:
The topic title can be considered a one line summary of St. Thomas’ Five Ways.
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Strange as it seems that i should discover curiosity in the face of your statement, i find my self compelled to start a journey. What say ye if i ask of you the relationship between the topic at hand and the mysterious answer that has departed from conscious being.

Creature of God!! I compel you to answer! For it is not just your own existence that hangs on the whisper of existential meaning.
 
I’m not sure you understand what “value” is. Value is that which a thinking agent gives to the things he interacts with.

There’s no such thing as “objective value.” If all minds vanished from the universe tomorrow, there would be no value because value only exists in minds.

Obviously “living is its own point” isn’t an “objective truth” – it’s a value judgment, and all value judgments are subjective.
 
NonServiam said:
Value is that which a thinking agent gives to the things he interacts with.
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In the context of what is true about reality, thats one understanding of value, and given that understanding your argument failed as an “objective truth”. You presented your statement as a “truth” about reality. If that was not your intention, you should have said that you choose to see a point to living because it gives you pleasure to do so, and that your choosing to does not mean that there truly is a point to life. But you didn’t, because you wanted to give the false impression that is was true. In reality it’s just your personal taste that you see a point to things. The fact that you choose to express your personal taste to us is pointless, and is only relevant to those who want to be involved in your subjective fantasy.
 
Bohm

What did Voltaire mean by “if God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him”?

The question is rhetorical, since Voltaire **did **believe that God exists. Exactly what kind if God he believed in is a little murky, but he was no atheist for sure.

I think he meant that nothing makes sense without God as an explanation. So even if you didn’t believe God exists, you would find existence to be ultimately irrational without God. Since the mind rebels against irrationality, it would invent God to explain why the universe exists and why we have a destiny in it.

Jean Paul Sartre spent his whole life defending the irrationality of his atheism. Then at the end he threw it all away and accepted God as he approached his death.
 
NonServiam said:
I’m not sure you understand what “value” is. Value is that which a thinking agent gives to the things he interacts with.

There’s no such thing as “objective value.” If all minds vanished from the universe tomorrow, there would be no value because value only exists in minds.

Obviously “living is its own point” isn’t an “objective truth” – it’s a value judgment, and all value judgments are subjective.
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Since all minds, God’s in particular, are immortal, objective value will always exist.
 
Voltaire believed that if people didn’t believe in God they would behave even worse than they have done already!
 
MindOverMatter2 said:
It is necessary to reinvent him if he commands me to have sex only in marriage. I would rather close my eyes to the existence of that God, and pretend that he really wants me to have as much sex as i possibly can in any way shape or form.

Tell me why not.
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Some people try to fashion God into their own personal image and likeness, making Him like them. They want to overlook the Bible and invent a God that suits their lifestyle; but their ways can be correct only within themselves, since their god exists only as a figment of their imagination.
 
Voltaire meant that people have to be taught that God exists to keep them living in peace and harmony! Even though he was a deist he mocked Leibniz in his novel Candide for believing this is the best of all possible worlds…
 
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