Natural Law, Old Law, New Law CCC 1950-1974 Natural Law, Old Law, New Law Questions C. S. Lewis, "The Law of Human Nature" George Weigel, "Commandments as Moral Code are Tools of Liberation" Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor,  Ch. I Fr. Servais Pinckaers, "Freedom and Happiness" *Scripture: The Ten Commandments (Ex 20 and Deut 5) *Scripture: The Law Extolled Fundamental Questions: Are there, in your view, objectively right and wrong moral acts?  Or is the morality of every act merely subjective?  Is every moral judgment merely the expression of a subjective emotion –  “Boo, I don’t like that” or “Hooray, I like that” – nothing more? If you answer that every moral judgment is merely the expression of a subjective emotion and nothing more, consider this: Does that apply to the kinds of acts committed by the “ordinary men” of Reserve Police Battalion 101?  Or how about raping, beating, and killing a thirteen-year-old girl?  Or black chattel slavery such as was practiced in the ante-bellum south?  Are those acts objectively wrong – wrong for me, wrong for you, wrong for anyone?  Or is it possible to say: “Well, perhaps that act of rape was right for him?  Is there – at least in some cases – a standard of right and wrong that all of us understand implicitly and to which all of us must be held to account?    Is there, for example, an intrinsic dignity and worth of each and every human person?  Or is each person’s “worth” merely a question of how much I “value” them or not?  On this latter view, there would be nothing intrinsically valuable about you. If I choose to “value” you, then you have value; if I choose not to “value” you, then you don’t have value.  There is no intrinsic truth about you.  Everything depends upon my choice to “value” you or not “value” you (or not).  What do you think? Do you think that the Ten Commandments are (or at least might be), as author George Weigel suggests, “tools of liberation”?  Or are they commands that destroy your freedom and threaten your flourishing as a full and complete human person?