ABSTRACT
Auguste Comte's ideas may have provided some welcome reassurance to the elites of European society, given what was then occurring across the continent. The millions of people who identify with the movement known as liberation theology, a variant of Christianity particularly prominent in the developing world, find no incompatibility between social justice and faith. Marvin Harris found fault with Karl Marx for his insistence on "the unity of theory and practice," the idea that social theory should be used to guide social change. Marx argued that like all economic arrangements that preceded it, capitalism contained contradictions that would result in its destruction. It is then usually interpreted to mean that Marx ridiculed religion as a kind of "false consciousness" that prevents people from understanding their social circumstances or working to change them. Primary among the forces standing in the way of revolution is the capitalist state.
