NATURAL LAW
158came along with Christianity: schooling,
separation of clan and family, taxes, and
so on. Some were willing, however, to talk
and learn about the Christian God. The
Native Americans who were not opposed
to learning about Christianity were drawn
to the missionaries that adopted their
culture (eating the native food, walking
around barefoot, not dressing up, and
acting kindly) as opposed to the mission-
aries that came in lavish clothes and
imposed threats. Along with Christianity,
Native Americans also were exposed to
diseases such as smallpox and measles;
with no vaccinations or previous dealings
with the diseases, the diseases spread like
wildfire through the different tribes in
North, Central, and South America, kill-
ing millions. The Native Americans who
were able to survive the wave of pandem-
ics that swept through their villages then
had to survive the famine, constant relo-
cation, and the results of the conflict with
the Europeans.
NATURAL LAW. The theory that the
nature of a being such as a human or a
horse has a good or value. According to
natural law, the goodness of human life
consists of the fulfilling of the capacities
and powers that befit a complete human
being. Such powers may include the pow-
ers to think, sense, feel, love, act, and so on
in ways that enhance human well-being.
NATURAL RELIGION. The religion
that develops without revelation, special
divine acts, or social manipulation. The
idea of a natural religion was paramount
in the Enlightenment, especially among
deists.NATURAL THEOLOGY. Reflection and
argument on the natural world to learn
about God’s nature and will. Natural theo-
logy differs from revealed theology, which
reflects on God and the world on the
grounds of what is believed to be divine
revelation, e.g., the Bible or the Qur’an.NATURALISM. Strict naturalism holds
that all of reality can be described and
explained in the natural sciences. Strict
naturalists tend either to reduce or
eliminate consciousness and other men-
tal states, or provide bridge laws on the
level of psychology that are derived from
and based on a materialistic base. Broader
forms of naturalism may allow for states
and facts beyond physics and chemistry,
but there is a general stress on the suffi-
ciency of science (including the social
sciences) and the nonexistence of God,
the soul, and an afterlife.NATURALISTIC FALLACY. The so-
called fallacy of reasoning from matters
of fact (e.g., people desire happiness) to a
value (e.g., people ought to desire happi-
ness). Those advocating the recognition
of such reasoning as fallacious uphold a
strict distinction between facts and values.