Is Dr Pangloss really dead?

François-Marie Arouet-Voltaire

Voltaire wrote this letter shortly after the Lisbon earthquake. This “Act of God” killed an estimated 70,000 out of a population of 185,000, many of whom were attending the mass. It occurred on All Saints Day 1755.

Les Délices, November 24, 1755

This is indeed a cruel piece of natural philosophy! We shall find it difficult to discover how the laws of movement operate in such fearful disasters in the best of all possible worlds-- where a hundred thousand ants, our neighbours, are crushed in a second on our ant-heaps, half, dying undoubtedly in inexpressible agonies, beneath débris from which it was impossible to extricate them, families all over Europe reduced to beggary, and the fortunes of a hundred merchants -- Swiss, like yourself -- swallowed up in the ruins of Lisbon. What a game of chance human life is! What will the preachers say -- especially if the Palace of the Inquisition is left standing! I flatter myself that those reverend fathers, the Inquisitors, will have been crushed just like other people. That ought to teach men not to persecute men: for, while a few sanctimonious humbugs are burning a few fanatics, the earth opens and swallows up all alike. I believe it is our mountains which save us from earthquakes.

Tout est pour le mieux indeed.

Comments

[Account Deleted]

To answer Voltaire's question, we know what the preachers will say. They will say it's the fault of the Haitians for engaging in a pack with the Devil and the fault of the rest of our for various sins such as allowing gay marriage and abortion.

I am waiting for the day when one of them has his life destroyed around him by such an "act of god" and I will then be interested to hear his thoughts on the matter.

[Tony]

i remember the bishop of carlisle blaming the floods in yorkshire on homosexuals. not presumably in yorkshire though!
t

[Peter Harvey]

The Bishop of San Sebastián has announced that the sufferings of the Haitian people are a lesser evil than the spiritual state of the Spanish people. The Haitians will at least be welcomed by God when they get to heaven.