Auguste Comte's "religion"

In the meantime I came across a book review by Peter Schöttler in the periodical DIE ZEIT, 16 Feb. 2011, which discusses a new book by Wolf Lepenies by the title "Auguste Comte: Die Macht der Zeichen", Hanser Verlag .  It is about Comte's philosophy of Positivism – something that was forgotten for most of the 20th century although Comte is credited with having coined and partly defined what we know now as Sociology — Lepenies nennt ihn 'the first sociologist of the 21st century'.
In the context of the previous blog, however, Comte is important because he founded a system he called the Religion of Humanity, a replacement of religion based an a god or gods, and intented as the basis for the spiritual, moral and ethical life of humans in modern societies. His positivism was at the same time philosophy, politics, religion and morals (Lepenies, p.18). Apart from the fact that some of the ideas he concocted more than 150 years ago in Paris, France, are somewhat out of place today, this idea of a godless 'religion', i.e., atheism based on science and philosphy,  that satisfies the apparent human need for spiritual service to a higher common good seems to be something like what I think I have in mind.
So I bought Lepenies' book and started reading it.  It holds everything Schöttler promises in his review.  I am sorry that I haven't come across this earlier, in my high school years or as a student.  The surprising aspect for me is that Comte realized that people need and want rituals and community without a god figure behind it. He also saw the possibility that an ethical basis for individuals and societies need not come from fear of the wrath of god or the horror of eternal hell, and not the promise of life in heaven either.  These are concepts derived from a pre-scientific age which was indeed governed by fears of effects from unexplained natural phenomena.

These are Comte's fundamental formulas, slogans and mottos:
1. Ordre et Progrès
2. L'amour pour principe, l'ordre pour base et le progrès pour but.
3. Vivre pour Autrui

Comte issued his Prospectus des travaux scientifiques nécessaires pour réorganiser la société and says about his approach to put his ideas into place: "Après avoir mentalement constitué la nouvelle philosphie, il faut bien que je m'occupe enfin de son installation sociale." (Cited in the footnotes on p.96 of Lepenies's book.)  He wrote Système de la politique positive to propagate a "humanity religion", a religion without god in which humanity replaces the usual higher being; Comte says: "Während die Protestanten und die Deisten immer die Religion im Namen Gottes attackiert haben, müssen wir, ganz im Gegenteil, letztlich Gott im Namen der Religion abschaffen." (cited after Lepenies, p.25) In March of 1848 he founded the Société Positiviste which was initially called 'Ordre et Progrès: Association libre pour l'instruction positive du peuple dans tout l'Occident européen' which is already something of a brief manifesto.
It is interesting to learn that Comte had a good response to his ideas in England and America: John Ruskin, John Fisher, William Mitchell Gillespie, John Stuart Mills, ...
As it happens, this week's Der Spiegel (Nr. 9, 28.2.2011) carries an article on p. 54 titled "Das gottlose Dorf" which is described in the table of contents by this 'abstract', as copied verbatim from there: "Können Muslime und Christen friedlich zusammenleben? Ja, wenn sie nüchtern bleiben und aufhören, an Gott zu glauben — diese Idee hatte der Äthiopier Zumra Nuru und gründete ein eigenes Dorf mit eigenen Regeln. In Awra Amba sind Religion und Alkohol verboten, Männer und Frauen gleichberechtigt, und der erwirtschaftete Gewinn wird geteilt. Das Modell funktioniert."
This is in essence Comte's 'order and progress'; not much more is necessary to get society to function.  Leaving any god out of the equation will make a huge progress.  The examples where a 'godless' society didn't work, like the SSSR and other communist governments, have more to do with a misguided economic model, and in any case, godless doesn't mean free of rituals that bring people together to reflect on common human qualities, morals, ethics.  Comte includes the arts in this, particularly the musical and graphical arts, and instituted weekly local meetings among members of his society.