Weatherly’s Reviews > Introduction to the Study of Religion > Status Update

Max Weber

Durkheim— society’s mirror

Marx— thought the only thing that was necessary was the first level of survival (food shelter etc) but the second level (art religion culture) was unnecessary and could be used to subjugate

WOWWWWWWWWWW
Comte put himself as the pope of this new religion of humanity, his title: The High Priest of Humanity

And his dead not-girlfriend??? The patron saint of the religion, basically it’s Virgin Mary.

Yuck 🤮 this dude has some interesting ideas but is also a creepo surpreme

The religion of the great being
-the great being is humanity itself

New religion had to have:
-hierarchy of elite functionaries to replace old priesthood
-educational system
-buildings that ppl could get together for

rituals that would inspire connection

Comte: how to go about filling this hole with some kind of new religion that wouldn’t lose plausibility (compatibility with positive science, has to be compelling and inspire love/devotion, had to provide a moral consensus and Norms of behavior/social structures)

Comte thought that the fall of religion would lead to societal collapse bc of the hole that that social bonding religious practice would leave

Comte basically thought of religion was bad science, and also had a separate theory of religion as a way of binding social connections

Stage of positivism: moving towards science as a way to explain