Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist, politically oriented towards liberal ideas.
Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology.
Herbert Spencer's short essay Retrogressive Religion, which we propose to our readers today, was published on the magazine Popular Science Monthly in August 1884. It's a highly argued critique of the retrogressive character of the "Comtean religion".