'Critically asses the claim that knowledge of God can be known through reason alone'.

The claim that knowledge of God can be known through reason alone is highly flawed. This is due to the fact that our reason, or a priori knowledge, cannot be empirically verified. Therefore, by only accepting claims about God through our reason, we could be neglecting essential pieces of evidence that point either against God's existence or for God's existence. Indeed, Kant argues that God must exist, because we have an idea of him existing in our reason, which we could not have developed without God giving us that idea in the first place. This idea however is deeply flawed because some people have an idea of there not being a God. In his writing 'To the Fool', Anselm claims that by denying the idea of a God however, you are already acknowledging the potentiality of his existence. This idea could combat the idea that we cannot rely on our reason to prove God, however it fails to do so. The reason people feel the need to reject the claim of a God in the first place is because there are people who insist on his existence. This may not even be due to inherent reason, but instead what Marx would call 'Mass Hysteria' - people becoming carried away with an idea which spreads like wild fire. Evidently, we cannot prove that God can be known through reason alone.
Some would argue that God cannot be known through reason alone, because he can also be verified empirically. This argument is firmly supported by Augustine, who suggests that we can see evidence of God through the beauty of his creation: the world. This point can be seen as problematic however, because, according to Tom Honey, the world is deeply flawed. One only needs to notice the vast amount of evil in existence to acknowledge this. On the other hand, this cannot disprove God in any way, because we cannot know for certain that evil does not exist for a reason. Indeed, Plantinga wisely points out that for humans to have total free will, God could not have made a good world with no evil - that way we would not have been able to choose right or wrong for ourselves. Therefore, we can see God through the empirical world around us. This shows that knowledge of God cannot be shown through reason alone, because it can also be found within the physical realm.