HOW does one discredit religion?

On 11 June 1762, in the square of the Palace of Justice in Paris, a book was burnt. Although in form a novel, actually it was written as a critique of children’s education. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s offence, with his novel Émile, was that he regarded “all religions as equally good”.

An authority had formally declared the accusation before Parliament; Rousseau, he said, had dared in this book to “destroy