How To Be An Agnostic
you are on this journey yourself is to affi rm that you are spiritual
but not religious. But it also raises diffi culties, not least when
you are unsure about which option to choose. Pluralism feeds
the sense of loss, as every choice not made is a possibility that’s
lost – and what if you’ve made the wrong choice? What to do?
A religion of humanity
The most radical way of responding to this predicament is to
invent a tailored set beliefs, and associated routines, rid of the
elements that you fi nd objectionable. It’s inevitable to a degree,
but it’s been tried more formally on a number of occasions too.
Thomas Jefferson was an early advocate. In 1803 he wrote to a
friend: ‘To the corruptions of Christianity, I am indeed opposed;
but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian
in the only sense in which he wishes anyone to be; sincerely
attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to
himself every human excellence, and believing he never claimed
any other.’ What Jefferson does to Christianity is extract what he
regards as the best bits, dropping the rest.
Auguste Comte went a stage further. This French philoso-
pher, who invented the term ‘sociology’ and was as famous as
Marx and Darwin for a while, developed an account of histori-
cal progress known as positivism. He argued that human beings
exist, fi rst, in a theological stage, characterised by superstition
and doctrines. Second, we move into a metaphysical stage,
during which reason and deism gain dominance. However, that
gives way to a third moment – the one he believed had dawned
in his own time. It’s the positivistic, and it emphasises individu-
ality and freedom. This stage reaches maturity when even the
affi rmation of God’s non-existence has ceased. ‘Atheism even
from the intellectual point of view, is a very imperfect form
of emancipation,’ he wrote, ‘For its tendency is to prolong the
metaphysical stage indefi nitely.’
Ironically, Comte was a great admirer of Roman Catholicism,
not for its theology, but for its power. It had global reach and