Food for thought.

May be you are right. But I look at it as the first eloquent statement, er, should I call it an aphorism on Atheism, from the most pursuasive writer of the French Revolution days/

I believe the first Divine was He who put us here. What rogues, fools or philosophers have done with translating that is another story entirely...

The fool came before the divine or the rogue invented the fool. There can be a differentiation made between the origin of God and origin of religion. God is unreal while religion is real. It is in fact the absence of something "like" God which has led to the emergence of different religions. Whenever you have believers and followers for any leader, saint, scientific theories, etc you have created a religion. The followers do not wish for fresh independent thinking and are more wedded to the concept or rituals which already satisfies their curiosity or hedonistic need. The moment somebody questions the established pattern, he is a non-religious person. Evolutionarily the need for religion and acceptance is more survival driven. You are safe in a herd. You are protected by your own tribe and this resulted in strong tribal bonding. We still think the same way. What Voltaire has to say about 'divinity'? If i interpret from the above quote, he does not believe in any kind of divinity. To accept that our higher senses are driven towards equality in the midst of the great survival instinct, is a lie in itself. Unfortunately denial of natural instincts is 'divinity' for great maturity. People of 'strength'(of all kinds) devise various means to be in strength. Religion is one of the means devised.

Communism or Maoismare also a form of religion. Religion is not restricted to Gos alone. It is any idea, leader etc which is followed rigidly without questioning. This trait is their to some extent in humans!!!!!!!!!

No, I've always figured that deities came about by a need to humanize the forces of nature. In other words, when a storm blew in that ruined crops, a god was angry, so it had to be appeased. That sort of thing. This particular quote portrays an unfortunate bias of many non-religious towards the religious. Of course, Voltaire was a deist, so I'm not too surprised.