Cicero (c. 106-43 B.C.)
The founders favorite expositor of Natural Law

Natural Law interests me as it relates to the founding of America.  References to it recur frequently in the founding documents of our country, perhaps most notably in the Declaration of Independence as “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”  Cicero, a favorite political philosopher of the founders, was the first to speak of Natural Law as a moral or political law.  As such, he believed it to be the only reliable basis for good government and just human relations.  Because man shares the gift of reason with his Creator the only rational, common sense approach to governing is through the laws already established by the Creator.  The Creator’s order of things is called Natural Law.

So what then is the natural order of things?  While I can’t efficiently articulate this yet,  I believe I recognized an example of it recently.  During a conversation with Aunt Ginger, who recently lost a grown child, she said that of all the people that she’d loved and lost – husband, parents and friends – the loss of her youngest son was the worst.  “It is just different than the others” she remarked before tearing up.  Confirming what I’ve heard before, the death of a child is the worst loss a human being may experience.  This speaks to the natural order of things.  Regardless of any moral or religious beliefs, it is unnatural for a child to precede his parent in death.  It’s a violation of the Creator’s order of things.