Natural Law Leads To Cruel Decisions

Some people would agree with the statement Natural Law leads to cruel decisions because the ideas that it is based on called the primary precepts can contradict themselves when faced with different situations particularly more modern circumstances. This is because naturalists tell us we must follow these precepts so to achieve our full purposes as human beings which we can only do by doing right. An example of this contradiction is in the use of a gun its purpose being to shoot things, in this case two of the primary precept state that we must protect innocent life and have an ordered society which go against the purpose of the gun because it is used to kill animals or occasionally harm people, therefore according to the precepts it should
not be able to fulfil its purpose by doing right. You cannot take away the guns purpose but either way it will be a wrong act and therefore going against God. On the other hand with the example of a gun someone who has shot another person could argue that they were simply assisting it in following its purpose in agreement with the Natural Law theory especially if the victim was not an innocent life so the act could be considered as not wrong. Due to Natural Law being an absolute theory that to work needs interior and exterior acts to work together an both be real goods with good intentions, although in some circumstances this is unfair because it does not take into consideration the consequences of situations. For example, if a starving man steals from a rich, greedy man in order to feed his family, this may not be seen as wrong as the intention is good and he is able to do so yet naturalists would argue that the theory states that the interior and exterior acts in this case not working together which means the starving man could be punished, leading to a cruel decision. Conversely, others would disagree with this statement because Natural Law is common sense and without these rules the society would be in the state of moral instability. The theory is mainly in place to create a ordered and safe society, where there is hope not to have to condemn anyone. People need to be punished when they do wrong though otherwise there would be no line of what is sinful and an act again God. In my opinion I believe Natural Law is a good basic principle as it has strict laws that could make most people follow however in practice it needs a few alterations to fit comfortably with modern day society as many problems arise when evaluating it but its basic principles are incredibly relevant and worth considing in everyones daily lives. Saska Macnab