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Entry: Who Are We? Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/who_are_we#26419 Post contents: Goodness, some people absolutely hate the term "natural right." So what are we to do when Popes in encyclicals (for you Catholics) say that the right to private property is part of the natural law? You seem to leave no explanation for why its wrong to murder me -- and don't just say "Because God said so." God orders you not to kill me because He gave me a certain worth -- call it a "right" or not -- that your whim or material advantage do not outrank. The divine command is not arbitrary -- it could not apply to a cow, as the Hindus seem to think -- but it has to do with human nature. Because humans are what they are, you are not allowed to kill them except in certain very defined circumstances. If a state does not have as a goal the preservation of order in attune with the natural law, then it requires fixing. This fixing may not be the most urgent thing on the agenda, but it still remains there. A state that never appeals to these higher principles or that does not take them into account simply is not legitimate. Sent at: 2008 08 29