>>1635726If anything, I'd say the way Nietzsche has been interpreted and represented in the last hundred years not only gives some solid ground to his worries, but that it in turn supports Voltaire's understanding of the role that a faith has in holding together a society, be it in authority or in a higher power that bestows that authority. Hell, taking just this section, I bet you could apply it to places even as small as this thread and find it still holds water:
>My lodging is filled with lizards and rats;>But the architect exists, and anyone who denies it>Is touched with madness under the guise of wisdom.>Consult Zoroaster, and Minos, and Solon,>And the martyr Socrates, and the great Cicero:>They all adored a master, a judge, a father.>This sublime system is necessary to man.>It is the sacred tie that binds society,>The first foundation of holy equity,>The bridle to the wicked, the hope of the just.>If the heavens, stripped of his noble imprint,>Could ever cease to attest to his being,>If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.>Let the wise man announce him and kings fear him.>Kings, if you oppress me, if your eminencies disdain>The tears of the innocent that you cause to flow,>My avenger is in the heavens: learn to tremble.>Such, at least, is the fruit of a useful creed.Even if there is no absolute order of the world that gives meaning to good and evil, or proper and improper behavior, it's incredibly important to the cohesion of a community for those who possess the qualities of leadership to create the facade of an absolute authority; to create in his own image a God that endorses his vision of morality and fraternity as not just a self-driven truth, but an absolute truth unassailable by the forces of entropy.
