A Goody From Woody

July 28, 2010

President Abraham Lincoln once said, “The philosophy in the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.”

How we Americans think about creation affects our view of the laws of our country. The Founders of our country understood this and therefore could write that “all are created equal” and that all people possess God-given “unalienable Rights” based on the law of Nature, which proceeds from “Nature in God.”

The concept of law (legal theory) is built on the relationships between law and morality. Natural Law is a view of law that sees God as Creator who gives people through eternal reason the ability to understand Natural Law because as people we are created in His image (imago dei) and we as people have intrinsic value based on God creating us. This view helps us really understand the effect of creation on what we think and the laws we create in regard to abortion and euthanasia. Because we are created in God’s image we will protect life.

Our country has had the benefits of Natural Law through most of its history. A new philosophy of law has appeared over the years and it is called Positive Law. This view of law sees man with temporal reason creating laws that are relative and subjective. They do not believe that God is involved in this process or product at all. Because they do not believe in creation man does not have intrinsic value and is left with only human reason to create social norms or power over people through law. This group finds it easy to support abortion and euthanasia.

How did America shift from Natural Law to Positive Law? If you look back in history you’ll find three reasons. They are:

1. Influence of Friedrich Nietzsche, the German atheist (1844-1900) who created a philosophy that “God is dead” and mankind is self-sufficient.
2. Utilitarianism. This is a moral theory that sees an action as morally right if and only if it produces at least as much good (utility) for all people affected by the action or any alternative action the person could do instead. This means there are no absolutes in law. It all depends on the person.
3. Charles Darwin (1809-1882). His writings on the Origin of the Species and his philosophy and teaching that mankind is basically a high functioning animal. Darwin was also an atheist.

If you put the influence of all three of them together you’ll see we as a country have shifted to Positive Law based on the rejection of God as Creator and with that the elevation of mankind to a place where only God belongs.

Next time you are reading about judges or lawyers or congress and the word law is used, it might be wise to know -- are they referring to law as our Founding Fathers believed it to be, Natural Law (based on God as Creator and therefore people having intrinsic value) or Positive Law where man is the center of it all and does not have intrinsic value.

By the way Positive Law changed its title to “legal realism” or “critical legal studies.”

The person nominated to be a Supreme Court Judge by President Obama is in her own words a “legal realist.”

Man-centered law that attempts to cut God out of the picture and ignore his laws will be out of step with reality. Pray for all those who lead us! Pray and put into practice Romans 13:1, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established…”