Cult of Reason
E475534
French Revolutionary cult
atheistic movement
civic religion
deistic movement
state-sponsored belief system
The Cult of Reason was a deistic, state-sponsored atheistic belief system promoted during the French Revolution that sought to replace traditional Christianity with a civic religion based on Enlightenment principles of reason and secularism.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Cult of Reason canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4863508 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cult of Reason Context triple: [Cult of the Supreme Being, opposedTo, Cult of Reason]
-
A.
Cult of the Supreme Being
The Cult of the Supreme Being was a deistic state religion established during the French Revolution that promoted virtue, civic morality, and belief in a non-Christian supreme deity as an alternative to both Catholicism and atheism.
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B.
Eclipse of Reason
Eclipse of Reason is a philosophical work by Max Horkheimer that critiques the degeneration of rationality in modern society and explores the relationship between reason, domination, and social injustice.
-
C.
Révolution
Révolution is a book titled in French that likely explores themes of political or social upheaval, change, or transformation.
-
D.
Farewell to Reason
Farewell to Reason is a philosophical work by Paul Feyerabend that critiques rationalism and defends epistemological pluralism in science and society.
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E.
The Destruction of Reason
The Destruction of Reason is a major philosophical work by György Lukács that offers a Marxist critique of irrationalist currents in modern Western philosophy and their relation to fascism.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cult of Reason Target entity description: The Cult of Reason was a deistic, state-sponsored atheistic belief system promoted during the French Revolution that sought to replace traditional Christianity with a civic religion based on Enlightenment principles of reason and secularism.
-
A.
Cult of the Supreme Being
The Cult of the Supreme Being was a deistic state religion established during the French Revolution that promoted virtue, civic morality, and belief in a non-Christian supreme deity as an alternative to both Catholicism and atheism.
-
B.
Eclipse of Reason
Eclipse of Reason is a philosophical work by Max Horkheimer that critiques the degeneration of rationality in modern society and explores the relationship between reason, domination, and social injustice.
-
C.
Révolution
Révolution is a book titled in French that likely explores themes of political or social upheaval, change, or transformation.
-
D.
Farewell to Reason
Farewell to Reason is a philosophical work by Paul Feyerabend that critiques rationalism and defends epistemological pluralism in science and society.
-
E.
The Destruction of Reason
The Destruction of Reason is a major philosophical work by György Lukács that offers a Marxist critique of irrationalist currents in modern Western philosophy and their relation to fascism.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
French Revolutionary cult
ⓘ
atheistic movement ⓘ civic religion ⓘ deistic movement ⓘ state-sponsored belief system ⓘ |
| aim |
to desacralize the Catholic Church and its institutions
ⓘ
to promote rational morality without revealed religion ⓘ to replace Catholic Christianity with a civic religion ⓘ |
| associatedWithEvent |
French Revolutionary dechristianization of 1793–1794
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
French dechristianization campaign ⓘ |
| corePrinciple |
Enlightenment philosophy
ⓘ
anti-clericalism ⓘ reason ⓘ rejection of traditional Christianity ⓘ secularism ⓘ |
| country | France ⓘ |
| doctrine |
denial of revealed religion
ⓘ
emphasis on human rationality as highest authority ⓘ veneration of abstract Reason rather than a personal God ⓘ |
| endCause |
political reaction under Robespierre
ⓘ
replacement by the Cult of the Supreme Being in 1794 ⓘ |
| historicalAssessment | often described as the first state-sponsored atheistic religion ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | French Revolution NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| ideologicalBasis |
Enlightenment rationalism
ⓘ
radical anti-clericalism ⓘ |
| inception | 1793 ⓘ |
| language | French ⓘ |
| locatedIn | French First Republic NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| majorCeremony | Festival of Reason NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| majorCeremonyLocation | Notre-Dame de Paris NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableSupporter |
Jacques Hébert
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| opposedBy |
Committee of Public Safety (later phase)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Maximilien Robespierre NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
Cult of the Supreme Being
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Enlightenment deism ⓘ French Revolutionary de-Christianization ⓘ civil religion ⓘ |
| religiousOrientation |
atheism (practical and polemical)
ⓘ
deism ⓘ |
| replaced | Roman Catholicism in France (de facto, in some areas) ⓘ |
| replacedBy | Cult of the Supreme Being NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| ritualFeature |
festivals celebrating Reason and Liberty
ⓘ
use of allegorical female figures representing Reason ⓘ |
| sphereOfInfluence |
Paris
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
various French communes during the Terror ⓘ |
| sponsoredBy | revolutionary authorities in France ⓘ |
| symbolicTransformationOf | Notre-Dame de Paris into a Temple of Reason ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Cult of Reason Description of subject: The Cult of Reason was a deistic, state-sponsored atheistic belief system promoted during the French Revolution that sought to replace traditional Christianity with a civic religion based on Enlightenment principles of reason and secularism.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.