Natural Law
Created | Updated Jun 6, 2003
A seemingly-widely accepted way of determining right from wrong is looking to nature. A good number of people follow this logic, that we can determine the right thing to do by what nature "intends," including all good Catholics.
Natural Law is ascribed to St. Thomas Aquinas in the 12th century. He argued, among other things, that learing about nature deepens respect for God, and also that we can learn God's will from it. He made a common mistake of philosophers of the past, that is deriving universal ideas and rules from particular instances and examples. Such searching usually yields contradicting examples. In the same way, we can learn what God intends for us by looking to nature. The natural purpose of things should be apparent.
What, then, is the natural purpose of the hand? Is it to wave? To grasp? To applaude? Followers of natural law usually argue there is only one use for a body part. The eye is to see, the ear to hear, the toes to play the Moonlight Sonata. This is how Catholics justify their policy on the use of condoms. The human sex organs have one purpose, and that purpose is to produce new humans. So, to use them in any way except to create new humans is a violation of natural law.
But, what is the purpose of the hand? Is it, then, a sin to wave to the pope?
Natural Law is ascribed to St. Thomas Aquinas in the 12th century. He argued, among other things, that learing about nature deepens respect for God, and also that we can learn God's will from it. He made a common mistake of philosophers of the past, that is deriving universal ideas and rules from particular instances and examples. Such searching usually yields contradicting examples. In the same way, we can learn what God intends for us by looking to nature. The natural purpose of things should be apparent.
What, then, is the natural purpose of the hand? Is it to wave? To grasp? To applaude? Followers of natural law usually argue there is only one use for a body part. The eye is to see, the ear to hear, the toes to play the Moonlight Sonata. This is how Catholics justify their policy on the use of condoms. The human sex organs have one purpose, and that purpose is to produce new humans. So, to use them in any way except to create new humans is a violation of natural law.
But, what is the purpose of the hand? Is it, then, a sin to wave to the pope?
