Thomas Aquinas And The Natural Law Theory

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the idea that even without a God, there can be a basis for morality. The structure of my argument will proceed as follows. I will begin my paper with the background information of the idea that without a God, specifically the Christian God, there is no moral basis. After detailing this false belief, I will go on to explain why it is indeed untrue due to various reasons. I will bring forth the conflicting views of St. Thomas Aquinas and the natural law theory before countering the arguments brought up by them.

The idea that the belief in God is necessary for an individual to have any moral basis would insinuate that the individual either has no reason to act moral, as they have no fear of the supposed spiritual consequences such as entrance to heaven or hell, or that they literally no idea as to what is morally right and wrong, due to the lack of God’s influence of their morality in their upbringing up to that point. This God is most commonly referred, or at least implied to be, the Christian God. Christians would point out that the entire reasoning behind labeling certain actions as either good or evil is because of the existence of God, as he and the bible set the moral standard in which actions are judged by. Posing the question of whether or not God is a necessity for morality brings up further, less easy to understand questions such as whether things have intrinsic value if there is no God, and if so, what things do have intrinsic value and why would they?

In order for there to be a moral basis and standard outside of the one presented by the Christian God due to its the commandments and other such rules surrounding the bible, there must be another sort of justification...

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... something, the are useful in themselves. Things that have intrinsic value are the things we want in the first place, what we achieve from the usefulness of things with normal value. Certain things can have intrinsic value for certain people, but happiness can be seen as something that intrinsic value in all individuals. Happiness is not used in order to gain something else, other things are used to gain happiness. Knowledge and human life are other examples of things with intrinsic value. In Plato’s views, what causes certain things to have intrinsic value is the forms which he used to justify moral standards that were not based on God’s existence and rules.

Christians would argue that the source of certain things having intrinsic value is God himself, as he is the source of the value (in the same sense that forms are the source of value in Plato’s views).