ABSTRACT
Kant’s critique of the arguments of natural theology is justly famous. It is one of the crucial steps in establishing the point that knowledge of God lies beyond the boundary set for reason by the Critical Philosophy and is therefore impossible. It helped Kant earn the reputation of the philosopher who attempted to assassinate God. The critique has been much discussed and reactions to it have varied from warm endorsement to rejection. Endorsement is shown in those many thinkers who take it that, along with Hume, Kant dealt the deathblow to natural theology. A good deal of recent commentary on Kant has moved toward the opposite response, seeing Kant’s objections to ontological, cosmological and design arguments as less than impressive (see the extended discussion in Wood 1978 for an example of this).
