Voltaire’s story Candide, follows Candide throughout Europe on an adventure to find his lover, Cunegonde. Throughout the story, the themes of injustice and suffering are present no matter where Candide and his friends travel, and Voltaire generally puts down any ideas about optimism that his characters may have. In addition to this, Candide also contains religious themes, with many of its characters being either motivated by religion, or being some kind of religious figure. This leads me to believe that Voltaire is using Candide to criticize the use of religion to justify various actions such as killing by using satire, mostly intentional understatement, despite the widespread popularity of religion throughout the world.

The first example of Voltiare’s criticism present in one of the earlier chapters is when a group of sages decide to burn and flog people, as they thought it would cease the destruction caused by earthquakes in the nearby region. Voltaire writes, “for it had been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible secret to hinder the earth from quaking.” Here he uses intentional understatement, plainly stating that these sages had killed a number of people to contrast how horrific what they did was. Two Portuguese men were killed for simply refusing to eat bacon, Pangloss for speaking his mind, and Candide was punished simply for listening. I believe this is Voltaire’s way of criticizing their use of religion as an excuse to have their own way, killing people who really did nothing wrong.

Suffering and injustice is present and out on full display all throughout Candide, with the only exception being in El Dorado, which is also the only place where the people do not pray or ask anything of god, as they believe that they have already received everything they need and are content. Voltaire presents El Dorado as a sort of paradise, where nobody seems to be struggling or unwell, and even the worst-off among the citizens have their doors made of silver and houses decorated with emeralds. Out of all of the locations visited by Candide, El Dorado is by far the most hospitable, and the only reason Candide leaves is because Cunegonde had still not been found. I believe that one of the reasons why Voltaire chooses to present El Dorado in such an appealing way is because of its lack of actions taken for the sake of religion. The chapters about Candide’s visit to El Dorado shows Candide’s ideal world, where religion does exist, but is not used as justification for people’s actions.

While not to the extent that it did many centuries ago, this message that Voltaire was trying to convey to us still holds significance in the modern world. Many people today still use their beliefs, religious or otherwise, in order to justify the things that they do. All in all, Candide serves as a window into a world where the use of religion as justification for terrible things has been overused, and its downsides exaggerated. While for the most part, I can agree with Voltaire’s message, I also think that it is important to follow your beliefs, but also to not let them cloud your judgment or allow them to hurt yourself or others.