Not even Kant's

"The dialogue between those outside the Church and us Catholics, us Christians, is a matter of great urgency, and we must at all costs remain faithful to this basic principle of living a faith that proceeds from the Logos, from creative reason, and is therefore open to all that is rational. But at this point, speaking as a believer, I should like to make a proposal to those outside the Church.

.

In the age of the Enlightenment, the attempt was made to understand and define the essential norms of morality by saying that these would be valid etsi Deus non daretur, even if God did not exist. In the situation of confessional antagonism and in the crisis that threatened the image of God, they tried to keep the essential moral values outside the controversies and to identify an evidential quality in these values that would make them independent of the many divisions and uncertainties of the various philosophies and religious confessions.

.

The intention was to guarantee the bases of life in society and, in more general terms, the bases of humanity. At that time, this seemed possible, since the great fundamental convictions created by Christianity were largely resistant to attack and seemed undeniable. The search for this kind of reassuring certainty, something that could go unchallenged despite all disagreements, has not succeeded.

.

Not even Kant's truly stupendous endeavors managed to create the necessary certainty that would be shared by all. Kant had denied that God could be known within the sphere of pure reason, but at the same time, he had presented God, freedom and immortality as postulates of practical reason, without which he saw no coherent possibility of acting in a moral manner.

.

I wonder if the situation of today's world might not make us return to the idea that Kant was right? Let me put this in different terms: the attempt, carried to the extremes, to shape human affairs to the exclusion of God leads us more and more to the brink of the abyss, towards the utter annihilation of man. We must therefore reverse the axiom of the Enlightenment and say: Even the one who does not succeed in finding the path to accepting the existence of God ought nevertheless to try to live and to direct his life veluti si Deus daretur, as if God did indeed exist."
(Joseph Ratzinger, Christianity and The Crisis of Cultures, S. Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005, pp. 50-51; bold mine)