“Natural law” was cited in support of the divine right of monarchs. As often as not, a claim based on national law is a fancied-up “because I say so.” The definition of pi can be mathematically and objectively determined; citizenship status cannot.
Invoking “natural law” is fine as a philosophical construct, but laws enforced by humans should be limited to those written by humans.
Exactly my point. Please inform Jeff. The ENGLISH version of "natural law" is that everyone owes allegiance to the King. The AMERICAN version of "natural law" is "...and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them..."
In other words, no man made laws.
As often as not, a claim based on national law is a fancied-up “because I say so.” The definition of pi can be mathematically and objectively determined; citizenship status cannot.
I disagree. 1/2 + 1/2 = 1 whole. Take some unknown child. You can tell who it's parents are, but can you tell where it was born? The Pro-Life movement counts a child as a Person from the moment of conception, it doesn't recognize "birth" as the criteria which makes someone a person.
"Birth" is a convenient boundary for recognizing a child, but it is a poor boundary for establishing the nature of the child. Just as a child inherits the characteristic of it's parents, so too does it inherit the National Character of it's parents. If the Parents love their country, then so too does the child. If the Parents love another country, then so to must the child.
Citizenship can be established by math, it's just a higher level of math.
Invoking “natural law” is fine as a philosophical construct, but laws enforced by humans should be limited to those written by humans.
Such as laws governing Slavery and Abortion? No, I would rather trust laws written by God. We cannot change them, but we can recognize them.