Natural Law Weaknesses

Natural Law | Strengths | Weaknesses | Rational – Natural Law uses practical reason, it is a common-sense approach. | Too simplistic - Humans do not have a single ‘fixed’ human nature. | God - Doesn’t require belief in God, as it is based on empirical observations of our nature. | God - Requires belief in God, as it relies on a God-given purpose | Objective – Natural Law gives us rules that are true independently of our individual thoughts and desires. | Outcomes - Leads to immoral outcomes e.g. not allowing contraception led to spread of AIDS and overpopulation in Africa | Purpose - The world has meaning, purpose and values. | Purpose - The idea of ‘purpose’ in nature can be explained by science (evolution and natural selection). |
| Cultural Relativism - Neilsen questions the unchanging nature of Primary Precepts in Natural Law, using Cultural Relativism. Gareth Moore argues our nature is a product of culture and society. | Double Effect - gets around problems of conflicting secondary precepts. | Double Effect - brings in consequentialism through the back door. You are allowed to do some terrible things because of double effect, and at other times you can’t do really helpful things. | Instinctive - Natural Law’s rules are in line with our instincts and intuitions. | Agape - Jesus was opposed to legalism, and broke rules in order to do the most loving thing. | Virtues - Focuses on human virtues and excellence – the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, and theological virtues of faith, hope and charity | Too optimistic - It has a too optimistic view of human nature. Augustine disagrees (original sin), as does Calvin (total depravity). | Thriving - Helps humans achieve health, happiness, friendship etc. | Unholistic - Vardy/Grosh – Aquinas’ view of human nature is unholistic and over-simplified