Criticisms of
Natural Law
1. God did not create the world for a
purpose.
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Jean Paul Sartre, Albert
Camus, Bertrand
Russell, Richard
Dawkins.
Universe is ‘absurd’ or
‘gratuitous’.
Universe is a ‘brute
fact’.
No design or purpose.
2. How do we know what is natural?
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The natural outworking
of physical laws?
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Death is natural, so
should we work to delay
it?
3. Natural v. culturally acceptable
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Subordination of
women and slavery used
to be viewed as
‘natural’.
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Is homosexuality
unnatural?
4. Natural Law obscures basic moral
differences.
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Kai Nielsen
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Anthropological
research suggests that
some primary precepts
are not in fact universal.
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Challenges idea of
universal moral law.
5.Vardy and Grosch challenge
Aquinas’ view of sex
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Aquinas stated that
every discharge of
semen should be
creative.
However, sex could be
justified in other ways,
e.g. its benefits to a
couple’s relationship.
6. Its rules can go against common
sense.
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E.g. human teeth
include incisors and
canines. Does this mean
we should all be
omnivorous? Are
vegetarians acting
immorally?
Should infertile couples
have sex if there is no
chance of conception?
7. Does humanity have a shared
purpose?
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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.
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God can have different
plans and purposes for
individuals, e.g. Mary,
prophets like Jeremiah.
There might be different
purposes for different
people.
Aquinas: use emotional
maturity – but this
introduces an element of
subjectivity.
9. What happens when different
purposes contradict each other?
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As well as reproduction,
we have other purposes,
e.g. to love God, learn,
contribute to society etc.
What happens when
these conflict?
E.g. ‘Turn the other
cheek’ versus selfpreservation.
10. Are people actually motivated by
reason?
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Was Aquinas too
optimistic in his view of
human nature and
reason?
Are all of us as
reasonable as Aquinas?
Don’t people sometimes
knowingly choose the
wrong thing to do?
11. Criticism from Darwin’s
evolutionary theory
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Living things are
motivated by the will to
survive.
Natural selection.
Humanity exists
through chance, not the
will of God.
Humans =
fundamentally selfinterested.
12. There is not enough attention
paid to the Fall.
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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.
Karl Barth.
13. The Naturalistic Fallacy
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G. E. Moore, Hume
Not logically possible to
look at facts and arrive
at value judgements.
‘Ought’ cannot be
derived from ‘is’.
We cannot take our
human nature and
derive moral values
from it.