"A tale of profound beliefs" - Article on the website "mART"

(Still from "The Last Religion", by Hugo Pinto)

"It is a tale of profound beliefs — in science and reason, but also in love and selflessness. It is a tale of memories — true memories; kept alive by a few in Brazil. And it is a tale of a heritage — precious; endangered.

The Last Religion (2015), directed by Macau-based journalist Hugo Pinto, is a documentary about Positivism in Brazil. Positivism is a line of thought founded by French philosopher Auguste Comte in the 19th century.

“Auguste Comte believed humanity evolved in three phases,” Mr Pinto tells mART. The first is “a theological phase, in which societies are dominated by myths, by supernatural beliefs, like a deity, a superior being;” the second was “a speculative” phase, dominated by “a certain speculative philosophy,” marked by “a lot of questions, but few answers”; and the third was “the Positivist phase, in which all knowledge is acquired through science,” “demonstrable knowledge”.

As a voice tells us at the beginning of the documentary, “the problem of humans is fundamentally the religion”. But when Comte talks about religion, “he’s referring to the harmony among all people”. “There’s only one religion: the Religion of Humanity. Or Positivism. It’s the same thing,” the voice says."

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