A voltaire question

[rondon9898]

Hello there,

I am very sorry if this question is in the wrong section. I am currently reading Guy de Maupassant's "La Horla", in which there is a quotation from Voltaire which reads: "Dieu a fait l'homme à son image, mais l'homme le lui a bien rendu". My clumsy attempt at translating this quotation would read something like this: "God made man in his image, but man certainly reciprocated/returned the favour (difficult to translate this directly - you clever folk may well have a better translation than mine).

I just wondered whether you could explain this quotation to me, as I just cannot get my head around it. I can tell that it is ironic, as were most things Voltaire said, but I can't understand the exact thrust of this point. I know that he also said "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer" (if god didn't exist, we would have had to invent him) so I imagine that the former quotation is similar in sentiment to the latter (the philosophical meaning of which I understand!)

Sorry for sounding like a bit of a thicko in such a learned internet environment! I hope you can help anyway.

Many thanks,
John

[PeterL]

Yes, the two bits from Voltaire are related. Broadly translated: God made man in hi image, and man returned the favor. That is to say that humans have made god fit the image that they wanted their god(s) to have.

[OrphanPip]

Maupassant snips the quote a bit. The full Voltaire quote would be best translated (without the wit) as "It is said that God invented man in his image, but it is really man who created God in their image." Although, Voltaire puts it a lot prettier than my blunt translation.

The full quote from Voltaire is "On prétend que Dieu a fait l'homme à son image, mais l'homme le lui a bien rendu."

[JCamilo]

One of Voltaire remarks against organized religion, who used God as justification to their prejudices and the maintenance to their own power. The other quote is more a way to say he was a deist and God was necessary for the universe order. Not a suggestion on God's fiction.