The Catholic Intellectual Tradition:
A Dynamic View on Sex and Sexuality
The Catholic Church is commonly perceived as being static and reluctant to change. This notion of an unchanging tradition causes the misconception that God excludes certain groups of people because of the judgement that they are living a life of sin. This misinterpretation is producing immense controversy among various groups of people and is causing many to either leave the Catholic Church, or discouraging them from joining in the first place. Both Catholics and non Catholics have the conventional misbelief that anything pertaining to sex is considered to be immoral by the church. The real issue is that many religious people put a heavier emphasis on the church’s …show more content…
Acts are judged to be moral or immoral based on either if they lead us towards telos, the “final goal at which all humans actions aim” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) or cause us to stray from telos. Therefore, an action must be in compliance with our human nature, otherwise the action is immoral. A significant aspect of Aquinas’ philosophy, is natural law. The Theory of Natural Law is often misunderstood and is a great topic of dispute. To begin, we must examine both Aquinas’ definition of law and the origin of law. According to Aquinas, his definition of a law is “a rule or a measure of human acts, whereby a person is induced to act or is restrained from acting” (ST IaIIae 90.1). Everywhere else, Aquinas refers to law as “dictate of practical reason emanating from a ruler” (ST IaIIae 91.1). Aquinas is saying that the purpose of a law is that it “serves as a guide to and measure of human action” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Although a law exists to guide human action towards telos, this is …show more content…
Natural law highlights the positive traits of human nature for example “the desire to know the truth, to choose the good and to develop as healthy mature human beings,” but fails to recognize the more negative traits of human nature. According to other philosophers, they perceive human nature in a more negative light. They perceive human nature as being inherently selfish with desires we should not be proud of. To state that behavior that is in accordance with human nature is always good while behavior that is not in accordance with human nature is evil causes a problem if there is disagreement about human nature. Also there is a gap between identifying traits of human nature and choosing which ones all of our human actions should coincide with. What says that we should not pursue the negative traits of human nature if they are indeed a part of our human nature? If the reason that the good traits are chosen is because God is good and we aim to be like God, this presupposes the existence of God and depends on accepting this premise first. Natural law is supposed to be natural and given to all of us in order that we have some sort of inherent moral compass. The purpose is that God gives us the knowledge of natural law so that regardless of how you are brought up, you are able to recognize it and know good from bad. It is also difficult to analyze human nature when so much of human
A Dynamic View on Sex and Sexuality
The Catholic Church is commonly perceived as being static and reluctant to change. This notion of an unchanging tradition causes the misconception that God excludes certain groups of people because of the judgement that they are living a life of sin. This misinterpretation is producing immense controversy among various groups of people and is causing many to either leave the Catholic Church, or discouraging them from joining in the first place. Both Catholics and non Catholics have the conventional misbelief that anything pertaining to sex is considered to be immoral by the church. The real issue is that many religious people put a heavier emphasis on the church’s …show more content…
Acts are judged to be moral or immoral based on either if they lead us towards telos, the “final goal at which all humans actions aim” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) or cause us to stray from telos. Therefore, an action must be in compliance with our human nature, otherwise the action is immoral. A significant aspect of Aquinas’ philosophy, is natural law. The Theory of Natural Law is often misunderstood and is a great topic of dispute. To begin, we must examine both Aquinas’ definition of law and the origin of law. According to Aquinas, his definition of a law is “a rule or a measure of human acts, whereby a person is induced to act or is restrained from acting” (ST IaIIae 90.1). Everywhere else, Aquinas refers to law as “dictate of practical reason emanating from a ruler” (ST IaIIae 91.1). Aquinas is saying that the purpose of a law is that it “serves as a guide to and measure of human action” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Although a law exists to guide human action towards telos, this is …show more content…
Natural law highlights the positive traits of human nature for example “the desire to know the truth, to choose the good and to develop as healthy mature human beings,” but fails to recognize the more negative traits of human nature. According to other philosophers, they perceive human nature in a more negative light. They perceive human nature as being inherently selfish with desires we should not be proud of. To state that behavior that is in accordance with human nature is always good while behavior that is not in accordance with human nature is evil causes a problem if there is disagreement about human nature. Also there is a gap between identifying traits of human nature and choosing which ones all of our human actions should coincide with. What says that we should not pursue the negative traits of human nature if they are indeed a part of our human nature? If the reason that the good traits are chosen is because God is good and we aim to be like God, this presupposes the existence of God and depends on accepting this premise first. Natural law is supposed to be natural and given to all of us in order that we have some sort of inherent moral compass. The purpose is that God gives us the knowledge of natural law so that regardless of how you are brought up, you are able to recognize it and know good from bad. It is also difficult to analyze human nature when so much of human