criticisms of natural law

  1. God did not create the world for a purpose

    • Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Bertrand Russell n Richard Dawkins

    • universe is ‘absurd’/’gratuitous’

    • universe is a ‘brute fact’

    • no design or purpose

  2. How do we know what is natural?

    • the natural outworking of physical laws?

    • death is natural, so should we work to delay it?

      • huge implications for euthanasia

      • Q: “if death is ‘natural’, is it moral to prolong a person’s life with medical intervention?

  3. Natural vs Culturally Acceptable

    • subordination of women and slavery used to be viewed as ‘natural’

      • in the past, it would have been seen as ‘unnatural’ for a women to be educated

    • is homosexuality unnatural?

  4. Natural Law obscures basic moral differences

    • kai nielsen

    • anthropological research suggests that some primary precepts are not in fact universal

    • challenges idea of universal moral law

    • eg inuit cultural traditions: they kill members of the family before winter set in (if they believed these members were vulnerable or cause a burden to the wider family group)

  5. vardy and grosch challenge aquinas’ view of sex

    • aquinas stated the every discharge of semen should be creative

    • however, sex could be justified in other ways, eg its benefits to a couple’s relationship

  6. its rules can go against common sense

    • eg human teeth inc incisors and canines: does this mean we should all be omnivorous? are vegatarians acting immorally?

  7. does humanity have a shared purpose?

    • natural law says we should all aim to have children: does this make nuns and monks immoral?

    • aquinas’ answer, that a few can choose this kind of lifestyle, seems inconsistent

  8. the Bible does not always reflect a common human purpose

    • God can have diff plans n purposes for individuals eg Mary, prophets like Jeremiah

    • aquinas: use emotional maturity - but this introduces an element of subjectivity

  9. what happens when diff purposes contradict each other?

    • purposes inc reproduction, loving God, learning, etc = could contradict each other

  10. are people actually motivated by reason?

    • was aquinas too optimistic in his view of human nature and reason?

  11. criticism from darwin’s evolutionary theory

    • living things are motivated by the will to survive

  12. there is not enough attention paid to the Fall

    • because of the Fall, we are fundamentally flawed

    • we need the Bible and God’s revelation to know what is right

    • human reason is fallible

  13. the naturalistic fallacy

    • G.E. Moore, Hume

    • not logically possible to look at facts and arrive at value judgements