Natural law and catholic attitudes towards science

• Natural law


  The idea that humans are born with an understanding of what is right and wrong, which is a natural part of human nature
• Catholic Church's teaching on natural law

  • Humans are born with the ability to know what is good and what is evil because God made all of creation good (Genesis 1)
  • Humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and share in His qualities, including the quality of being good
• Following natural law is important for Catholics because it is part of God's will for humans
• Humans should not need rules to tell them what is right, as natural law states that they should know right from wrong intuitively
• Basic natural law principles

  • Do good
  • Avoid evil
  • Protect and preserve life
• Sanctity of life


  The teaching that all life is holy and sacred, so it should be protected
• The Second Vatican Council meetings held by the Pope and bishops to update the Catholic Church's teachings


  1962-1965
• The Second Vatican Council stressed that religion and science support each other and do not have to contradict each other
• The Catholic Church is very supportive of advances in science that help people to understand God's creation
• Religion and science might come up with slightly different answers, but this is because they are asking slightly different questions
• If the Genesis creation stories are read as myths rather than literally, they do not contradict the theory of evolution
• Georges Lemaitre, a Catholic priest, first proposed the Big Bang theory, which explains how the universe began
• Difference between religion and science

  • Religion tries to explain why things happen
  • Science tries to explain how things happen
• Gaudiem et spes 36

  ”if methodical investigation is carried out in a genuinely scientific matter, it never trielt contradicts with faith”