Aquinas Good Example For Eternal Law example essay topic

354 words
Question #1 Aquinas says that law is an! ^0 ordination! +/- or! ^0 dictate! +/- of reason, and that these always aim at happiness or blessedness. What Aquinas means here by! ^0 ordination! +/- is that he is saying that ordination is laws that are through God, not by us humans. Unlike God-made-laws, human-made-laws are either just or unjust in which case they do not impose the obligations of conscience.

Aquinas believes that a law is unjust if it does not promote the common good, breaks the divine law and forbids worship of God; however, he also says that some of these laws can be done if it does not cause any problem. When Aquinas mentions! ^0 dictate, ! +/- he is referring it to messages sent by God, for an example, a radio receiver for God. Laws that are dictated are laws given by God, like the Ten Commandments. Aquinas believes that if people live by the Ten Commandments, it will bring you happiness and also blessedness.

According to Aquinas, being close with God is considered to bring happiness and being blessed. The distinction between! ^0 eternal law! +/- and! ^0 natural law! +/- is that eternal law consists of laws that govern the nature of an eternal universe, and natural law consists of those percepts of the eternal law that govern the behavior of beings possessing reason and free will. Natural law for example, is laws dictated by God.

Like I have mentioned above, the Ten Commandments can be considered a natural law. It is also a law that gives us the choice of freedom to make decisions for ourselves. It is up to us whether we make the right decision or not. Eternal laws are laws built into nature by God. For an example, the weather; we cannot change the weather whenever we want or however we want.

The weather is God!'s made nature and something we humans cannot control. Another good example for eternal law would be gravity.