Religion of Humanity - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Religion of Humanity was a secular religion

Secular religion

Secular religion is a term used to describe ideas, theories or philosophies which involve no spiritual component yet possess qualities similar to those of a religion...

created by Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte

Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte , better known as Auguste Comte , was a French philosopher, a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism...

, the founder of positivist

Positivism

Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....

philosophy. Adherents of this religion have built chapels of Humanity in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

Origins

Comte developed the religion of humanity for positivist societies in order to fulfill the cohesive function once held by traditional worship. The religion was developed after Comte's passionate platonic relationship with Clotilde de Vaux

Clotilde de Vaux

Clotilde de Vaux, was born Clotilde-Marie de Ficquelmont on April 3, 1815 in Paris, France and died on April 5, 1846 in Paris, France. She gave philosopher Auguste Comte the inspiration for the « Religion of Humanity ».- Biography :...

, whom he idealised after her death. He became convinced that feminine values embodied the triumph of sentiment and morality. In a future science-based Positivist society there should also be a religion that would have power by virtue of moral force alone. In 1849, he proposed a calendar reform

Calendar reform

A calendar reform is any significant revision of a calendar system. The term sometimes is used instead for a proposal to switch to a different calendar.Most calendars have several rules which could be altered by reform:...

called the 'positivist calendar

Positivist calendar

The positivist calendar was a calendar reform proposal by Auguste Comte in 1849. After revising the earlier work of Marco Mastrofini, Comte's proposed calendar was a solar calendar which had 13 months of 28 days, and an additional festival day commemorating the dead, totalling 365 days.This extra...

', in which months were named after history's greatest leaders, thinkers and artists, arranged progressively in chronological order. Each day was dedicated to a thinker, in the manner of Catholic saint's days.

Tenets

According to Tony Davies, Comte's secular and positive religion was "a complete system of belief and ritual, with liturgy and sacraments, priesthood and pontiff, all organized around the public veneration of Humanity", referred to as the Nouveau Grand-Être Suprême (New Supreme Great Being). "This was later to be supplemented in a positivist trinity by the Grand Fétish (the Earth) and the Grand Milieu (Cosmic Space)".

In Système de politique positive (1851–1854) Comte stated that the pillars of the religion are:

altruism, leading to generosity and selfless dedication to others.
order : Comte thought that after the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, society needed restoration of order.
progress : the consequences of industrial and technical breakthroughs for human societies.

In Catéchisme positiviste (1851), Comte defined the Church of Humanity's seven sacraments:

Introduction; (nomination and sponsoring)
Admission; (end of education)
Destination; (choice of a career)
Marriage;
Retirement; (age 63),
Separation; (social extreme unction),
Incorporation; (absorption into history) - 3 years after death.

Liturgy and priesthood

The Religion of humanity was described by Thomas Huxley

Thomas Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS was an English biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution....

as "Catholicism minus Christianity". In addition to a holy trinity of Humanity, the Earth and Destiny, it had a priesthood. Priests were required to be married, because of the ennobling influence of womanhood. They would conduct services, including Positivist prayer, which was "a solemn out-pouring, whether in private or in public, of men's nobler feelings, inspiring them with larger and more comprehensive thoughts." The purpose of the religion was to increase altruism, so that believers acted always in the best interests of humanity as a whole. The priests would be international ambasadors of altruism, teaching, arbitrating in industrial and political disputes, and directing public opinion. They should be scholars, physicians, poets and artists. Indeed all the arts, including dancing and singing should be practiced by them, like bard

Bard

In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...

s in ancient societies.

This required long training. They began training from the age of twenty-eight, studying in positivist schools. From thirty-five to forty-two a priest served in an apprentice position as teacher and ritualist. Only at the age of forty-two could he become a full priest. They earned no money and could not hold offices outside the priesthood. In this way their influence was purely spiritual and moral. The High Priest of Humanity was to live in Paris, which would replace Rome as the centre of religion.

Influence

Davies argues that Comte's austere and "slightly dispiriting" philosophy of humanity - viewed as alone in an indifferent universe (which can only be explained by "positive" science) and with nowhere to turn but to each other - "was even more influential in Victorian England than the theories of Charles Darwin or Karl Marx".

The system was ultimately unsuccessful but, along with Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

's On the Origin of Species, it influenced the proliferation of various Secular Humanist organizations in the 19th century, especially through the work of secularists such as George Holyoake

George Holyoake

George Jacob Holyoake , English secularist and co-operator, was born in Birmingham, England. He coined the term "secularism" in 1851 and the term "jingoism" in 1878.-Owenism:...

and Richard Congreve

Richard Congreve

Richard Congreve was one of the leading figures in the specifically religious interpretation of Auguste Comte's form of positivism. In that capacity he founded the London Positivist Society in 1867 and the Comtist Church of Humanity in 1878...

. Although Comte's English followers, including George Eliot

George Eliot

Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...

and Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau was an English social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist....

, for the most part rejected the full gloomy panoply of his system, they liked the idea of a religion of humanity and his injunction to "vivre pour altrui" ("live for others", from which comes the word "altruism

Altruism

Altruism is a concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and a core aspect of various religious traditions, though the concept of 'others' toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions. Altruism is the opposite of...

").

Religion of Humanity in Brazil

Comtean Positivism was relatively popular in Brazil. In 1881 Miguel Lemos and Raimundo Teixeira Mendes

Raimundo Teixeira Mendes

Raimundo Teixeira Mendes was a Brazilian philosopher and mathematician. He is credited with creating the national motto, "Order and Progress", as well as the national flag on which it appears....

organized the "Positivist Church of Brazil." In 1897 the "Temple of Humanity" was created. The services at the Temple could go on for up to four hours and that, combined with a certain moral strictness, led to some decline during the Republican period. Nevertheless it had appeal with the military class as Benjamin Constant

Benjamin Constant (Brazil)

Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães was a Brazilian military man and political thinker.He was born at Niterói....

joined the group before breaking with it because he deemed Mendes and Lemos as too fanatical. Cândido Rondon

Cândido Rondon

Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, or Marechal Rondon was a Brazilian military officer who is most famous for his exploration of Mato Grosso and the Western Amazon Basin, and his lifelong support of Brazilian indigenous populations...

's conversion proved more solid as he remained an orthodox Positivist, and member of the faith, long after the church's importance waned. Although declined the church survives in present day Brazil.

Other examples

Inspired by August Comte, John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...

also started a Religion of Humanity. Though a close associate of Comte, Mill disapproved of his religion. Mill believed one could distinguish between a "good Comte" (the author of the Course in Positive Philosophy) and a "bad Comte" (the author of the secular-religious system).

There are more examples of Religion of Humanity started by positivists, and there are several authors who have given the epithet to the religion they support, whatever the religion. In India Baba Faqir Chand

Baba Faqir Chand

Baba Faqir Chand, was an Indian master of Surat Shabd Yoga, or consciously controlled near death experience. He was the first Sant Mat guru to speak of overwhelming experience of certainty and the subjective projection of sacred forms without the conscious knowledge of the person at the center of...

established Manavta Mandir

Manavta Mandir

Manavta Mandir or Be Man Temple in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India was established in the year 1962 by Baba Faqir Chand . In order to carry forward the mission of his religion of humanity, Faqir, with the financial help from Seth Durga Das established the temple which remained his center of activity...

(Temple of Humanity) to spread his religion of humanity with scientific attitude as explained by David C. Lane

David C. Lane

David Christopher Lane is a professor of philosophy and sociology at Mt. San Antonio College, in Walnut, California. He is most notable for exposing Eckankar as a cult and its founder, Paul Twitchell, as a plagiarist in his book The Making of a Spiritual Movement: The Untold Story of Paul...

in a book 'The Unknowing Sage'. Comte influenced the thought of Victorian secularists George Holyoake

George Holyoake

George Jacob Holyoake , English secularist and co-operator, was born in Birmingham, England. He coined the term "secularism" in 1851 and the term "jingoism" in 1878.-Owenism:...

(coiner of the term "secularism

Secularism

Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...

") and Richard Congreve