“Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat(Gen 2,17) –the theory of natural law

Abstract

Out of the several threats mentioned in the encyclical Veritatis splendor, John Paul II was particularly concerned by the rejection of the traditional doctrine of natural law, which is one of the consequences of breaking a crucial link between freedom and truth. The pope notices that technological progress combined with some forms of liberalism has made these two concepts mutually contradictory in a number of fundamental aspects of human life. Today, after over 20 years since John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis splendor was released, and, especially,in the face of current discussions and debates on the legal protection of a newly conceived life or in-vitro,it is worth asking: what is natural law and why its rejection is a threat? What is its relation to positive law? How should the term “human nature” be understood? The article attempts to answer these questions.