Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Natural law theory

Some 2k proponents advocate natural law as their alternative to propositional revelation. I myself don't object to natural law appeals, per se, within the limitations of a natural law approach. However, all I'm seeing from the 2k camp are natural law assertions rather than natural law arguments. I don't see them presenting a specific list of what activities ought to be criminalized, what corresponding penalties ought to be assigned, and the natural law arguments in support of each. 


We're getting promissory notes rather than anything resembling a carefully reasoned alternative. You'd never know from the facile appeals to natural law that we're seeing from the 2k camp that natural law theory is fraught with complexities, ambiguities, and imponderables. Here are two good online resources which give an overview of the challenges to this approach:



1 comment:

  1. Without having read the linked to materials on natural law and admittedly not being informed by this debate, this proposed dichotomy between natural law and special revelation laws seems odd to me. If both are grounded in God, I would have thought both - properly understood - would be identical, with differences being explained as fallen man perverting natural law to accord with his own inclinations and conditioning.

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