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Auguste Comte – Religion of Humanity

Auguste Comte (1788 - 1857), a French Philosopher, presented the theory of ‘The Religion of Humanity’. This contribution to the realm of sociological theory is seen as his effort to revive the beneficial function of conventional religion in a new style in modern society. The conventional religion offers cohesive forces to organize people into a society where there is harmony and peace among the people. Similarly, conventional religion serves as an agent of social control in society by guiding behavior of people positively. At a point in his life, Comte realized these functions of conventional religion and felt the need to present his own model of religion for the establishment of harmony and peace within a modern society.  However, his theory of the religion of humanity is different from conventional religion in certain ways.

Auguste Comte is the founder of Positivism. He had a scientific approach to look at the world. He believed only in those phenomena which can be verified with evidence. As an atheist, he was never convinced of the divine powers. In the early years of his life, he viewed the traditional religion as a misleading practice for the people. But in his later age, he transformed into a quasi-religious philosopher. According to some philosophers, this shift in his style of thinking was a result of some setbacks faced by Auguste Comte in his later age. For instance, his first wife ditched him. His second wife and his love lady, Clotilde de Vaux, died. Most part of his life was miserable due to his financial problems. He had no or few friends. These setbacks in life transformed his style of thinking from being purely based on the scientific approach to somewhat being based on morality and religiosity.

Comte believed that the values of morality are indispensable for the existence of modern society. He realized that love, altruism, justice, equity and ethics are the pillars of society. The absence of these pillars threatens social integrity and prosperity; and without these pillars, society will ultimately collapse. Based on these basic principles, Comte developed the religion of humanity which is necessary for the existence, prosperity and development of society.

Comte argued that human intellectual and societal evolution is leading to the emergence of modern and scientific society. Therefore, the traditional religion will fail to perform its social function in the modern and scientific society because science believes in rationality whereas traditional religion is based on beliefs in unexplainable divine factors. In the scientific society, people will believe only in things which can be verified scientifically and thus, they will discard the peculiar beliefs of traditional religion. Therefore, there should be an updated version of religion which is based on rational morality. With this in mind, Comte presented his theory of the religion of humanity.

Comte was born and raised in an environment where the French revolution has recently matured, and the Industrial Revolution has started blossoming. He believed that the modernizing society may face certain problems such as social disintegration and moral degeneration. Among many causes of these social problems, one factor is the weakening influence of traditional religion in the modernizing society over time.  This was another reason why Comte presented his theory of the religion of humanity to revive the beneficial function of traditional religion in a new style in the modernizing society.

The characteristics of the Comte’s religion of humanity are as follows:

   Tenets of the religion

According to Comte, the tenets of the religion of humanity are love, altruism, cooperation, selflessness, justice, equity, peace and ethics. These tenets should become the basis for the duties and obligations of the followers of the religion of humanity. These tenets of religion are crucial for the cohesion and existence of modern society. The followers must manifest love, altruism, equity and justice in their behavior. These tenets and principles lead to high standards of morality in the affairs of human beings. Love among the people leads to the spirit of cooperation with one another. Comte argued that the selfish tendencies of human beings must be replaced with altruism. Altruism leads to caring about the happiness and needs of others. Equity ensures valuing the dignity of human beings. Treating others with respect and equality is crucial for establishment of a society based on justice. Overall, these tenets guide human behavior to maintain order, peace and progress in society.

   No concept of ‘God’

Comte’s religion of humanity has no concept of God. This religion is purely based on morality and not on the belief in supernatural or divine power. Comte was not in favor of a theological kind of religion. Comte argued that God resides in the ignorance of man. Comte stated that the object of worship must be mankind and not God. The purpose of Comte’s religion was only to serve humanity. He only wanted to have a religion whose positive role is functional in the modern society where the people will only believe in scientifically provable things; and they will stop following the traditional religion because the beliefs associated with supernatural or divine powers in the traditional religion cannot be proven scientifically. Therefore, he based his religion only on rational morality and did not give any space to the concept of God in his religion.

   Sociologist-priest as the moral guide

Auguste Comte argued that the religion of humanity is led by sociologist-priests rather than traditional religious priests. These sociologist-priests will be the learned people who will be fully aware of the standards of morality needed for modern society. For each community, there will be one sociologist-priest who will guide and control the behaviors of the members of that community. The sociologist-priests will make people realize their moral duties and obligations in order to achieve the positive social functions of the religion of humanity. Comte viewed himself as the high priest of the religion of humanity because he formulated this new religion as well as its principles.

   Sociologist-priest as the moral guide

When Aguste Comte put forward his most theories, it was the early beginning of industrialization and modernization in many countries. He believed that human beings are becoming more rational as they are entering a new stage of scientific society. He was of the view that in a scientific society, people would believe only in those things which can be observed and verified scientifically. He sensed out that people will discard the beliefs of traditional religion because its beliefs, particularly related to its spiritual aspects, cannot be verified scientifically. He argued that the traditional religion would become dysfunctional in modern society, particularly when the society will become fully scientific by reaching the zenith of industrialization and modernization in future. He was convinced of the positive role of the traditional religion for the integrity and existence of society. However, he sensed out that the traditional religion may become dysfunctional in a modern scientific society, which will result in the disintegration of the society.

Therefore, Comte believed that there should be a new religion for modern scientific society and this religion should be based on rational morality. He proposed a new religion with the name of ‘the religion of humanity’ for modern society. This new religion will have no space for beliefs on scientifically non-verifiable supernatural or divine forces but only be based on principles of rational morality such as love, altruism, cooperation, selflessness, justice, and equity. Therefore, such a religion will be readily accepted by people in modern society and would serve its positive social function for the establishment of peace, harmony, and prosperity; and for social development in modern society. 

   Functions of the religions

The important functions of the religion of humanity are as follows:

  1. To establish peace, order and discipline in society.
  2. To provide the cohesive forces to organize people into society.
  3. To guide human behavior positively leading to social prosperity.
  4. To control the offensive behavior of people.
  5. To maintain the survival of society.
  6. To make a basis for social development.