“Man has been forced to vegetate in his own stupidity”. When d’Holbach wrote those words, he was one of many men who criticized religious institutions and their intrusion in society during the Enlightenment. Voltaire, Paine, and d’Holbach all shared in common specific arguments against religion. The main argument being how stories believed by the followers were not based in reason and therefore could not be proven to be true. Secondly, they attacked the tendency for religious institutions to oppress the free thinking of the people. Lastly, they offered evidence that religious beliefs caused people to act in ways that could be classified as fanaticism and often developed into a form of obsession that drove people to madness, resulting often
