Candide: Difference between revisions

Deism is "an eighteenth century belief that God made the universe, but then left it to run on its own, rather like a watchmaker who makes a clock and then leaves it to run on its own." Deism was the religion of [[http://litmuse.maconstate.edu/litwiki/index.php/Candide#Candide Candide]] and [[Voltaire]], who firmly believed there was significant just and cause to believe in "a necessary eternal supreme intelligent being....Although Voltaire did not think one could prove the existence of God, he thought the order and harmony of the universe strongly suggested that it had been created by a supreme intelligence, not by random events." (Ayer, 110)  

As we all know the story of ''Candide'' is full of unordinary events and the existence of the mysterious land, El Dorado and its myth of being "a land of gold somwhere in Central or South America" (406) may suggest a positive outlook or reward for those who believed in God and shared their beliefs among others in a conforming sense. "God is rather like the Lord described by the [http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/Dervish Dervish] (the 172 year old man, p.406) who sends a ship full of goods to another country, but doesn't worry about the condition of the mice in the hold. But the ship is in good condition, and the voyage has a purpose, to the Lord, if not to the mice."