Why did Auguste Comte criticize theological explanations of natural events?

Auguste Comte criticized theological explanations of natural events because he viewed them as anthropomorphic, relying on all-too-human analogies to attribute observed phenomena to the wills or miraculous powers of gods and spirits.1

As part of his law of three stages, Comte argued that human intellectual development must progress beyond these early, imperfect modes of thought. He maintained that theological and metaphysical explanations fail to provide genuine knowledge because they seek absolute causes that are ultimately unanswerable.12

Instead, Comte advocated for positivism, which restricts knowledge to empirical observation and the formulation of descriptive laws based on the verifiable relations between phenomena. He believed that by abandoning these "pseudoexplanations," humanity could reach full intellectual maturity and apply the scientific method to effectively understand and improve society.312