God Kant with Kant 

Immanuel Kant’s idea of independent thought or enlightenment as the primary source of thinking and foundation of life is refuted immediately by biblical evidence. “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advise” (Proverbs 12:15 ESV). God repeatedly advises against “depending on our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5) through  Solomon’s writing in the book of Proverbs. These scripture verses assert that “having courage to use our own reason” (Kant, 1) is not a quality that a truly wise person possesses according to God’s standards. Our flesh driven hearts and minds are not trustworthy when godly council is absent from our lives. Another scripture verse that argues against Kant’s idea of enlightenment is Proverbs 28:26, “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” Trusting in our own intelligence is foolish and authentic, godly wisdom is acquired when we seek and discern council from others. However, Adopting all the advise and teachings that are passed onto us from others is not wise. We should not assume what we are told is true without digging for evidence and fact checking to see if the evidence supports the advise as truth. “I have placed the main point of enlightenment— the escape of men from their self incurred tutelage chiefly in the matters of religion because our rulers have no interest in playing the guardian with respect to the arts and sciences and also because religious incompetence is not only the most harmful but also the most degrading of all” (Kant, 5). During the time period that Kant’s “What is the Enlightenment?” was written, Catholicism was the predominant religion across Europe.  Kant speaks against religious leaders absorbing religious doctrine regardless of if they are certain that it is accurate by checking to see if it aligns with God’s word. Kant is right that we should not adopt everything as truth and should check to make sure that we can find evidence to support something before adopting the belief as our own, but God intends for us to discern and seek godly and trustworthy council that can help us grow in wisdom, along with our individual walk with Him. 

I commented on Madison Flowers and Moriah Nelson's blog posts.