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Immanuel Kant, changed the spelling of his name from Emmanuel to "Immanuel" to accord with its Hebrew meaning: "God is with us." So, this quintessential Enlightenment thinker  - and Thomas Jefferson a little after him - could not talk about God easily. Kant & Jefferson did not "know" God or prove Him in the ways we gain empirical knowledge through the senses. But Kant is no John Locke, locked into sensual data, unable to taste intuitions that beckon agape love, morality, dignity, desires to have children, longevity, and most essentially, for Kant, what remains the "holy in human rationality." By the way, imagine J. J. Rousseau ("Emile" author) called marriage "holy"! Do not quickly label enlightenment thinkers the way seminary or college tend to do!

So Kant did what is best and wisest with God. He said that Morality was crucial for religion, not vice versa, that God was helpful for morality, yet God could not be known empirically, so Kant chose to focus on reason and Human rationality as part of the image of God in human beings (Genesis 1-3, esp. 1:26-27). That is why his contributions to Moral Philosophy confounds so many - we cannot use anyone and anything as means to our ends; the highest and holiest thing we can do is build a corpus of universality in morality. Or more simply, do unto others as you would have done unto you: Do NOT elevate your desire or maxims unless you want it universally in all circumstances. I KANT see how Immanuel - who was eloquently grateful to his harness-maker dad and Pietist-leaning mom, is hated by Evangelicals at the Academy in general. Of course, there are exceptions (other than I? LOL!)

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