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View Full Version : Does Natural Law presuppose a Theology?


bull62400
03-08-2006, 10:54 AM
Does it?
Yonivore
03-08-2006, 11:28 AM
Does it?
Do you exist?
Oh, Gee!!
03-08-2006, 11:28 AM
I don't understand the question, thread starter.
FromWayDowntown
03-08-2006, 11:35 AM
Natural law, as an abstract concept, doesn't presuppose a theology -- natural law exists because man exists, without regard to why or how it is that man exists. The overlay of natural law being willed to man by a creator comes closer to presupposing a theological underpinning. But as I've been reminded repeatedly in the discussion of intelligent design as a concept, the notion of an intelligent designer is not necessarily contiguous with a theological belief in God or religion in any form.
boutons_
03-08-2006, 11:35 AM
does natural law presuppose a supernatural?

sounds like another creationist/IDer.
101A
03-08-2006, 11:38 AM
does natural law presuppose a supernatural?



No, and neither does, as FWD suggests, intelligent design.
FromWayDowntown
03-08-2006, 11:41 AM
No, and neither does, as FWD suggests, intelligent design.

That's not what I suggested, though, 101. I was just reiterating what I have been told elsewhere.

If someone suggests here that natural law presupposes a theology and that natural law emanates from man's creator, then I'm not sure how you can square the argument that teaching concerning man's creation is anything other than religious or theological.
101A
03-08-2006, 12:31 PM
That's not what I suggested, though, 101. I was just reiterating what I have been told elsewhere.

If someone suggests here that natural law presupposes a theology and that natural law emanates from man's creator, then I'm not sure how you can square the argument that teaching concerning man's creation is anything other than religious or theological.

There is a school of thought (think I saw it from a string-theory mathematician on NOVA), that our "creation" did not have to come from a supernatural being - but from simply a more advanced being (or as this guy suggested, HUMANS fully evolved). Not saying I give the guy alot of merit, just repeating...didn't mean to misquote you, however.
spurster
03-08-2006, 12:49 PM
If not theology, then at least metaphysics.