EXPLAIN THIS: Where Do Natural Laws Come From?
“Where do natural laws originate” was not likely the first question on your mind this morning as you gazed into the mirror, washed the sleep out of your eyes, and contemplated your breakfast choices.
But what would you say if that question was posed to you later in the day by a colleague during the first meeting of the day at work, or a friend over lunch, or during Happy Hour tonight at BullFeathers on the Hill?
In the following short video, Dr. Frank Turek of cross-examined.org goes through the question and answer with an inquisitor during a recent address on a college campus. Definitely worth a listen and some reflection:
Natural laws indeed are the product of a mind: ours.
This is particularly unconvincing. “Laws come from Lawgivers” is just a semantic game. First he acknowledges that natural laws are not things we discover (or proclaim or decide) meaning natural law are entirely unlike any laws that we know come from lawgivers, then he linguistically jumps to the conclusion that natural laws are just like manmade laws in that they have to come from sentience. Playing with others terms shows how silly this is. ‘Forces come from Forcewielders (yay Jedi) for example.
How did you reach your conclusion that “‘laws come from lawgivers’ is just a semantic game”?
I thought I spelled it out pretty clearly. Lets try it again though. We have 2 things we are calling laws. One is a set of rules and consequences created by humans (lawgivers) that help us maintain order in our society. We highly value these and generally afford them a great deal of respect and out understanding of human created laws and wish they were inviolate even though at their core they describe consequences for their violation. When natural philosophers began describing the fundamental (inviolate) forces of the universe they coined them laws even though they had pretty much nothing in common with the human created laws.
Lets try a substitution: The rules of a society and the proscribed punishments for violation of those rules comes from Lawgivers. Therefore the observed inviolate forces of the the universe comes from a Lawgiver. That is obviously nonsense. By that I don’t mean that an Omnipotent God that defines the forces of the universe is impossible, but that humanity defining crimes and punishments is proof that God defined the universe is nonsense.
David, thanks for being patient and willing, and I agree that “humanity defining crimes and punishments is proof that God defined the universe” is untrue.
[…] Where Do Natural Laws Come From? Dr. Frank Turek. […]