yes how does he arrive at these 5 ways?

or wait

Give me a sec to switch to computer

these aren't the five ways

Aquinas arrived at NML by finding what individual threads ran consistent throughout societies

You cannot have a functional society without all 5 of those things

?

Let's go through this one line at a time

these haven't existed in all societies

unless by worshipping God you mean worshipping literally any God or gods

Your society cannot continue to exist if it does not require its members to self preserve

wait before you start

(yeah thats what i mean, any religious practice counts)

all of these are basically tautology except the last one

societies have been functional societies isn't really much of a claim

Your society cannot continue to exist if its members do not have children, and educate them in what it means to be a part of that society

and this really then boils down to a descriptive claim, not a perscriptive one.

it functionally IS a tautology but that doesnt make it meaningless

Let me think

but why should this inform morality in any meaningful way?

It is right to stay alive

It is right to have children

these don't demonstrate that

It is right to educate children

all these say are "people have stayed alive, had children, etc."

there's no argument for why these should be continued

only that they have been trends

consider what would happen if your society fails to do those things then

it is impossible for a society to exist outside of those

well the last doesn't seem impossible

societies are becoming more secular over time

this doesn't seem to contribute to their collapse

they are worshipping themselves

then we've gotten reductive come on. What does the word "worship" mean to you?

because if you get that reductive, it's impossible to buck these 5 points

thats kind of the point

its a baseline for a society to work

I can now argue for an atheist society based on this framework by being that reductive, which I don't think mr Thomas Aquinas would have been a fan of

but this baseline doesn't allow me to arrive at any interesting conclusions

and it doesn't demonstrate that any of these things are even good

@Airman Zeno Just thinking of points to push against each law respectively:
1. What about in War?
2. OK (maybe: what about overpopulation?)
3. Educate in what?
4. Very vague!! (economics?)
5. OK