Natural Law

natural law, christian, ten commandments, liberal, obama,
It took me a minute, but I think "natural law" as discussed by Fred Hutchison, RenewAmerica "analyst" is the Ten Commandments, the idea being that every person everywhere automatically knows the Ten Commandments whether they know itor not. The article is a criticism of liberalism (we're blown about by the winds of popular fads) and Obama (he's the weathervane), but I thought I'd deal with one particular bit of silliness: the idea that everywhere and everywhen in the universe "thou shalt not steal" is held to be true.

In the early 20th century, the jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes was the most famous proponent of positive law. G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis were very popular proponents of natural law.

Chesterton's fictional detective, Father Brown, was a like a Christian Sherlock Homes. He was on the trail of Flambeau, a criminal mastermind. Before Father Brown solved a case against Flambeau, he debated Flambeau about natural law versus positive law. Flambeau speculated that there are many worlds in the starry heavens and that each one has a different moral law. Father Brown replied that every one of those worlds has a mortar board, "Thou shalt not steal." In this way, Father Brown emphasized the universality of natural law and rejected cultural relativism. His terse comments rebuked Flambeau for being a thief. His comments also rebuked him for temporizing the immorality of his thefts by using the relativistic philosophy of positive law.

How would Father Brown know that? Has he been to every world in "the starry heavens" and asked? Or is he, like Chesterton, simply unable to imagine people who are not just like him?

It was hardly uncommon, several hundred years ago, to run into peoples in both the Americas and in Africa that did not have any notion of land being owned by any particular individual. Land was just land, if you wanted to use it, fine, but you couldn't own it. This led to trouble for the natives when the (Christian) Europeans moved in with their concepts of land ownership. Native leaders thought they were granting the Europeans limited use of the land, when in fact they were effectively destroying themselves.

It's not too hard to imagine a culture in which there is no notion of ownership at all, land or otherwise. I am wearing this sweater because I'm cold and it fits me and it looks nice with my outfit, but when I am done with it, someone else can wear it. I live in this house because it suits me, but I could live in another house, or someone else could live in this one. Father Brown knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this culture has never existed on earth or anywhere else in the entire universe? Really? How?

The idea of natural law is that the creator hardwires some things directly into our brains, we all know them whether we are ever taught them or not. If you've spent any time with small children, you know this isn't true. If a baby wants something, they grab it. They don't consider ownership, they have no concept of theft. It is the reaction of adults to their grabbing that teaches them that particular commandment.

Think about the implications of natural law. Why bother to raise your children? If natural law exists, you could lock your kids in a closet or drop them off in the woods for wolves to raise and they'd still grow up to be adults who don't steal, lie, have sex outside of marriage, worship false idols or take the name of the lord in vain.

Nobody actually thinks that, do they?