An essay by this thinker imagines the “obstinate pride” needed to say that there are “nine hundred million little ants” on earth but “only my anthill is beloved of God.” Mikhail Bakunin’s God and the State uses the word “abolish” in an inversion of a quote by this thinker. This thinker’s critiques of dogmatic authority include the claim that “superstition sets the world in flame,” the plea to “crush the infamous,” and his Treatise on Tolerance. This thinker wrote that “if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” This author of Letters on the English and the Philosophical Dictionary created a character who rationalizes his syphilis and the Lisbon earthquake. For 10 points, what author parodied Leibniz’s Theodicy via the character Pangloss in his novel Candide? ■END■
ANSWER: Voltaire [or François-Marie d’Arouet] (Bakunin wrote that “If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.”)
<TM, Philosophy>
= Average correct buzz position