LAWS THAT DON’T CONTROL
EDITOR: —In a recent issue of “The Match!”, Paul Roasberry makes a common mistake when he writes of “natural laws” CONTROLLING “all phenomena”.
“Natural laws” control nothing. They are formulas not fiats, and are devised by men to DESCRIBE phenomena—not to control them. To conceive of natural laws in any other way is to still carry in one’s mind what the late Chapman Cohen used to call “the ghost of God”, since the idea of a law controlling or governing phenomena immediately suggests the existence of a celestial “law-maker”, and thus reopens the door for theism. Anarchist atheists particularly should be aware of the difference between statute (or common) law and “natural law”.
—S. E. Parker,
LONDON.