NATURAL LAW

According to Aquinas natural law expresses moral requirements. It contains rules,

commands, and action-guiding requirements. Human beings possess intrinsic
values that govern our reasoning and behavior. It is found within rational
creatures like humans. He linked it to the eternal law which in layman's term 'God's
perfect plan', God's will and wisdom that is not fully knowable by humans. Natural
law is opposed to theories that laws are socially constructed and created by people.

//It is not a law of nature that science describes. Natural law is an internal rule that
we intrinsically recognize. We as humans know what is right and wrong without
being told so by external sources like religion and society. People do not need to
learn that we should pursue good and avoid evil. Aquinas believed that this is a gift
from God.

Natural law is constant throughout time and across the globe because it is based on
human nature, not on culture or customs.

Natural law is an ethical theory that claims that humans are born with a certain moral
compass that guides behaviors. These inherited rules essentially distinguish the
"rights" and "wrongs" in life.//

According to Aquinas, if you act according to reason, then You are partaking in the
Natural Law.

Two groups of adherents that are God’s creature of natural law.

• Rational creatures – refers to human beings which are gifted with rationality
and freedom

• Irrational creatures – refers to animals, plants and other non-living creature

without rationality and freedom

NATURAL LAW AND ITS TENET

In his book ETHICS: A Class Manual in Moral Philosophy, Right Reverend Msgr.
Paul J. Glenn made a distinction of a natiral law in a broad sense and in the narrow
sense for rational and irrational creautures.

For rational creatures, it is stated that natural law is already present within us. It
just has to be discovered by any human beings by using their rationality. We are
called to participate in divine life of the highest being (God) inorder to have fullness
of being.

For irrational creatures, the way they exist and action is guided by natural law.
//hunting food, finding shelters, reproducing and existing are all guided by natural
law//
In broad sense,natural law guides both the rational and irrational creatures in
their own respective tendencies towards the realization of their being.

Natural Law and Eternal Law

Natural law is a picture of eternal law as something sensible and knowable to

human beings.

Human Positive Law - human positive law is a reasonable rule of action, expressly
or directly promulgated by competent human authority for the common good, and
usually, but not necessarily, imposing a sanction in case of disobedience.

2 subclasses of Human Positive Law

Civil Law - enacted and promulgated by lawmakers of the land.

Ecclesiastes Law - enacted and promulgated by religious people based on their

faith and morals.