called the natural law. What is the “natural law”?
The Impossible-Not-To-Be-Known Law
Natural law is sometimes mistaken for the laws of nature, such as the growth of plants, the birth of stars, or the migration of moose. It really means the rule of conduct prescribed to us by the Creator in and through the way He made us. It sounds a bit abstract at first, but it’s simple and practical. Natural law refers to that which rational beings must do in order to perfect their natures.
Take an example from the inanimate world. To properly operate a toaster according to its nature, you must insert sliced bread, not a cardboard fake. The cardboard may look like toast, and inserting it may feel so right, but the result will be decidedly untasty. Or say you’re baking a cake and, owing to your fondness for the word “strychnine,” you add a pinch into the cake mix. All positive feelings for the poison are cancelled by its actual presence in one’s food.
As the nature of toasters and strychnine must be respected in the culinary sphere, so the nature of human actions—particularly, for our purposes, sexual intercourse—must be respected in the moral sphere if things are to go well for us.
The leading expositor of natural law theory is Saint Thomas Aquinas (+1274). According to Aquinas, the natural law is “nothing else than the rational creature’s participation in the eternal law” (Summa I-II, Q. 94). This eternal law is God’s wisdom, and He lovingly willed that we should somehow participate in it through conscience in the way we live our lives; its supreme rule is that what is genuinely fulfilling for human beings must be respected (cf. Summa I-II, Q, 94, art. 2.).
Extending the teaching of his ancient mentor, Aristotle, Saint Thomas starts from the premise that goodness is what our human nature naturally seeks; so, the first principle of moral action must have the Good as its main idea—not what feels good, looks good, or smells good, but what is really good for us. (Tequila may keep my back pain at bay for a while, but I really need a chiropractor.)
Natural law refers to “the right thing to do,” the moral rule of right and wrong we cannot not know. Actions that respect the basic goods to which our nature inclines us, and thus cooperate with God’s wise plan for creation, are right and morally good; those that in one way or another denigrate a basic good, and thus thwart God’s directives, are wrong and morally bad.
Relatively Dualistic
Two main impediments prevent people from clearly seeing the workings of the natural law in human affairs; and much of society has adopted both, almost by osmosis. The first is dualism. 1 The other is relativism.
According to dualism, the “true self ” is identified solely with the mind or with consciousness. The body is seen as an extrinsic add-on, like a sock to a foot. It’s valid to speak of my body, as opposed to yours, but the dualist sees the body more as inert property, something radically separated from the “real” inner person.
An old TV ad warned, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” A dualist culture wants every day to be April Fool’s Day on Mother. For we no longer look upon our bodies and see evidence of a Designer—only a blank slate on which to write ourselves, edit ourselves, or, if need be, delete ourselves by euthanasia. We indelibly (and painfully) paint ourselves with tattoos. We stick rings into our nostrils and navels, and create specialized cosmetic surgeries to fix imperfections that were not so long ago thought to be assets. We nip and tuck because we can. (As a description of the influence of dualism, this is a short list. 2 )
The vision of Scripture is far from such a mechanized, imperialistic view of our bodies. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you … you are not your own; you were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19–20). Classical philosophy
The Impossible-Not-To-Be-Known Law
Natural law is sometimes mistaken for the laws of nature, such as the growth of plants, the birth of stars, or the migration of moose. It really means the rule of conduct prescribed to us by the Creator in and through the way He made us. It sounds a bit abstract at first, but it’s simple and practical. Natural law refers to that which rational beings must do in order to perfect their natures.
Take an example from the inanimate world. To properly operate a toaster according to its nature, you must insert sliced bread, not a cardboard fake. The cardboard may look like toast, and inserting it may feel so right, but the result will be decidedly untasty. Or say you’re baking a cake and, owing to your fondness for the word “strychnine,” you add a pinch into the cake mix. All positive feelings for the poison are cancelled by its actual presence in one’s food.
As the nature of toasters and strychnine must be respected in the culinary sphere, so the nature of human actions—particularly, for our purposes, sexual intercourse—must be respected in the moral sphere if things are to go well for us.
The leading expositor of natural law theory is Saint Thomas Aquinas (+1274). According to Aquinas, the natural law is “nothing else than the rational creature’s participation in the eternal law” (Summa I-II, Q. 94). This eternal law is God’s wisdom, and He lovingly willed that we should somehow participate in it through conscience in the way we live our lives; its supreme rule is that what is genuinely fulfilling for human beings must be respected (cf. Summa I-II, Q, 94, art. 2.).
Extending the teaching of his ancient mentor, Aristotle, Saint Thomas starts from the premise that goodness is what our human nature naturally seeks; so, the first principle of moral action must have the Good as its main idea—not what feels good, looks good, or smells good, but what is really good for us. (Tequila may keep my back pain at bay for a while, but I really need a chiropractor.)
Natural law refers to “the right thing to do,” the moral rule of right and wrong we cannot not know. Actions that respect the basic goods to which our nature inclines us, and thus cooperate with God’s wise plan for creation, are right and morally good; those that in one way or another denigrate a basic good, and thus thwart God’s directives, are wrong and morally bad.
Relatively Dualistic
Two main impediments prevent people from clearly seeing the workings of the natural law in human affairs; and much of society has adopted both, almost by osmosis. The first is dualism. 1 The other is relativism.
According to dualism, the “true self ” is identified solely with the mind or with consciousness. The body is seen as an extrinsic add-on, like a sock to a foot. It’s valid to speak of my body, as opposed to yours, but the dualist sees the body more as inert property, something radically separated from the “real” inner person.
An old TV ad warned, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” A dualist culture wants every day to be April Fool’s Day on Mother. For we no longer look upon our bodies and see evidence of a Designer—only a blank slate on which to write ourselves, edit ourselves, or, if need be, delete ourselves by euthanasia. We indelibly (and painfully) paint ourselves with tattoos. We stick rings into our nostrils and navels, and create specialized cosmetic surgeries to fix imperfections that were not so long ago thought to be assets. We nip and tuck because we can. (As a description of the influence of dualism, this is a short list. 2 )
The vision of Scripture is far from such a mechanized, imperialistic view of our bodies. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you … you are not your own; you were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19–20). Classical philosophy
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