French Developments

19th Century History

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In post-revolutionary France the main atheistic influence was that of Auguste Comte (1798-1857). Comte's Course of Positive Philosophy (1830) represented his attack on metaphysics and promotion of a science- based philosophy which would influence John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) in England and others elsewhere across Europe. Comte, aware of human beings' propensity to seek some form of religious consolation, attempted to invent a replacement atheistic religion to take the place of Christianity, in which humanity itself was the object of worship.[1]

Auguste Comte (1798-1857).

(oil on canvas) by Etex, Louis Jules (1810-1889) Temple de la Religion de l'Humanite, Paris, France/ The Bridgeman Art Library

The historian of atheism Georges Minois has stressed the importance of the role of the Catholic church when considering the development of post- revolutionary French atheism. Whereas in Britain and Protestant Germany liberal churchmen sought a reconciliation between belief and modern science (natural and social), the Catholic church's refusal to dialogue with the new sciences opened up a gap between belief and modern culture which led many down the path of atheism on grounds of freedom of intelligence.[2]

In France as in Germany, the development of the sciences also encouraged the spread of atheism, also perhaps more acutely in the former. In 1848, in his The Future of Science, Ernest Renan (1823-1892) claimed that science should replace religion; and this would be echoed as late as 1895, when key French defenders of scientism still called for the replacement of religion with science.[3]

References

Lubac, Henri de. The Drama of Atheist Humanism. Cleveland ; New York: World Publishing, 1963.
Minois, Georges. Histoire de L'atheisme. La Fleche: Fayard, 1998.

Bibliography

Footnotes

[1]↑ See for example Henri de Lubac, The Drama of Atheist Humanism (Cleveland ; New York: World Publishing, 1963).
[2]↑ Georges Minois, Histoire de L'atheisme (La Fleche: Fayard, 1998), 480.
[3]↑ Ibid., 470-71.

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