Importance of Natural Law Natural law is important because it is applied to moral, political, and ethical systems today It has played a large role in the history of political and philosophical theory and has been used to understand and discuss human nature

What are Faith and Reason? Faith is the belief in the truth of something that does not require any evidence and may not be provable by any empirical or rational means Reason is the faculty of the mind through which we can logically come to rational conclusions

The natural light of reason is the capacity for intelligent thought that all human beings have just by virtue of being human By exercising their native intelligence, human beings can discover, verify, and organize many truths of natural reason

Examples of natural rights include the right to property, the right to question the government, and the right to have free and independent thought

Enlightenment thinkers wanted to improve human conditions on earth rather than concern themselves with religion and the afterlife These thinkers valued reason, science, religious tolerance, and what they called “natural rights”—life, liberty, and property

However, the government does protect some of our rights from other people For example, it protects our right to life and to property It does this by making and enforcing laws The government creates laws, for example, that make it illegal to steal from us by force or bilk us out of our money by fraud

Legal rights are laws that protect people There are many different types of laws Laws that apply to everyone in the United States are called Federal laws Some are based on the Constitution of the United States Laws that apply to everyone in a state are called State laws or statutes

It ensures that the government, or anyone acting on its behalf, doesn’t take away or interfere with these rights or freedoms unreasonably It is a powerful force for progress, protection, compassion and fairness with the power to influence our society by interpreting laws and policies

Types of Rights:

• Natural Rights: Many researchers have faith in natural rights
• Moral Rights: Moral Rights are based on human consciousness
• Legal Rights: Legal rights are those rights which are accepted and enforced by the state
• Human and Legal Rights:
• Contractual Rights:
• Positive Rights:
• Negative Rights:
• Right to Equality:

The preamble to the UDHR sets out the aims of the Declaration, namely to contribute to ‘freedom, justice and peace in the world’, to be achieved by universal recognition and respect for human rights These rights are then defined in 30 articles which include civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights