HOW THE UNKNOWN BECOMES KNOWN

How do we know what we know? The German philosopher Immanuel Kant spent a lot of time in thinking and writing about this topic. He is known as one of the first philosophers of what we call `The enlightenment’. His age was an age of science, of many discoveries – also called `the age of reason’. Together with the growth of the Enlightenment religion faced decline. Not surprising, is it? For, if knowledge comes from what we can perceive and if, by definition, God cannot be seen – then how can we know anything for sure about God? Therefore Immanuel Kant thought religion should not be regarded as belonging to the area of knowledge, but to the area of opinions and of morality. Down to this very day, such thinking is very widespread. Upcoming Sunday we read again in John’s Gospel. Surprisingly enough, in his Gospel, John gives a lot of attention to knowledge, to evidence and to the question how the unseen God can be know by man. You are very welcome to learn more!