The Cross Section - RMB Blog

  The Ethics Of Liberty by Murray Rothbard Rothbard concludes the first section of his book by making an important transition from natural law to natural rights.  Where, in the previous chapter, he contrasted natural law with positive law, here he introduces the concept of natural rights and shows how they emerge out of the natural law ethic. The classical version of natural law following the tradition of Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas failed to fight off the theories of the positivists and produce liberty.  Their cardinal sin was that they considered the State as a center of virtue and goodness.  Their corollary sin was equating society with the State. Fortunately, there was a separate branch of natural law theory, which separated State and society, and therefore did promote political freedom.                 "the Levellers and particularly John Locke in seventeenth-century England                    ... transformed classical natural law into a theory grounded on               

  Here are some slides I  presented discussing the types of order in the universe and human nature.  Created order shows God's design intent for human life.  Theologians through church history and political philosophers have called that natural law. Of course we all violate that design intent with the choices we make.  The purpose of the talk was to clarify the standard.  Then describe how God responded to us rejecting His standard.  He put a plan in place the moment humanity disobeyed.  He worked out His plan over thousands of years.  That plan has been completed in Jesus.  We look back thousands of years ago to see how God made a way back to Him and the life He created for us. Jesus, as God, created the world and even today holds it together.  He literally keeps the world spinning.  Other parts of the Bible describe Jesus as the chief cornerstone.  Jesus, as the Logos, is the cornerstone of the whole universe.  As He is at the center of everything, being the Logos, He is intimate