A critical study on the views that deny the role of reason in knowing God ... Kant as an example

Muhammad Ali Ardakan

Summary
Kant is one of the scholars who focused on knowledge and through which they critiqued reason. Kant considered theoretical reason as useless and ineffective in knowing God.

And since his view was a logical consequence of his cognitive theory, the author of this article sheds lights on his (Kant's) cognitive views in a descriptive-analytical approach. After that, the author talks about the role of reason for knowing God according to Kant. In this study, the author has followed an approach in which he critiques Kant's cognitive views on the role of theoretical reason in knowing God, regardless of his ethical arguments for knowing God, and his views on the philosophy of ethics. As for Kant’s

secular rationalism, it has been discussed in two fields:
A: general criticism to Kant's cognitive system
B: Special criticism to Kant's own special reading of the arguments for the existence of God
One of the basic questions asked by man -since the beginning of his creation- is the question about the beginning. Although man’s mind cannot comprehend the essence of the Creator, due to the limitedness of mind, he can, by using his mind,
comprehend some of God’s attributes, such as that He is a Necessary Being, most Perfect, most Absolute, and that He is the Creator, the Designer, non-moving Mover, and so on. Through mind, and through reviewing of religious texts, one can apply those attributes to Almighty God. In fact, I have studied this probability in Islamic philosophy, theology, Islamic Gnosticism, and in Western Philosophy.

Kant (1724-1804) is one of the most important Western philosophers in the last three centuries. Through his cognitive views, it seems clear that he sees pure reason incapable of demonstrating the existence of the Creator, and so he resorts to practical reason. Hence, we can consider Kant as one of the most prominent and influential scholars concerning the knowing of God in Western Philosophy. Although the schools of thought that deny the role of reason in the recognition of God have shown their views according to their own foundations and fundamentals, but given the apparent influence of Kant in the history of the new philosophy of the West and the importance of his philosophy in the field of epistemology, especially the role of reason in the knowing of God, this article has focused on Kant's ideas regarding the role of reason for knowing God, using the descriptive-analytical approach.

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