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El Supremo

(20,365 posts)
Thu Apr 8, 2021, 08:12 PM Apr 2021

Do We Really Have God Given Rights?

I heard it again today from Doug Lamborn, a Colo. Republican Representative, that we have a God given right to own guns after Biden announced some executive actions.

I know that the Declaration of Independence says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." But that kind of religious statement is not in the Constitution.

Here is an argument against it from an evangelical source: https://danielpassini.org/lets-look-at-our-god-given-rights/

24 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Do We Really Have God Given Rights? (Original Post) El Supremo Apr 2021 OP
the GOP knows that God, Guns and Gays WORKS on their pathetic base Skittles Apr 2021 #1
No AZProgressive Apr 2021 #2
No Lunabell Apr 2021 #3
exactly, there are no gods, nor singular god, so the question itself is invalid Celerity Apr 2021 #14
Nope Solly Mack Apr 2021 #4
Depends on which god you ask Hekate Apr 2021 #5
How many gods are there? scarytomcat Apr 2021 #12
Countless multitudes, and most of them have "clubs" of believers. Take your pick... Hekate Apr 2021 #15
no thanks but Granny would know scarytomcat Apr 2021 #16
We have whatever rights we can manage to wrest from the grasp of the powerful. Binkie The Clown Apr 2021 #6
No Goodheart Apr 2021 #7
How weak God must be if man can take them away. keithbvadu2 Apr 2021 #8
Is there an invoice? Eko Apr 2021 #9
A lot of the philosophy undergirding the Declaration and Constitution is Natural Law Sympthsical Apr 2021 #10
What did Jesus hidden carry? nt PufPuf23 Apr 2021 #11
Loaves and fishes? Hekate Apr 2021 #22
This message was self-deleted by its author Celerity Apr 2021 #13
The Creator was mentioned in the Declaration--but most of the Founders were Deists... Hekate Apr 2021 #17
I would ask anyone who says that Mariana Apr 2021 #18
We'd have to have a God first Silent3 Apr 2021 #19
The Way I Understand RobinA Apr 2021 #20
Of course not. Mysterian Apr 2021 #21
No; that would assume the existence of gods. lagomorph777 Apr 2021 #23
I should have posted this in the Religion Group. El Supremo Apr 2021 #24

AZProgressive

(29,322 posts)
2. No
Thu Apr 8, 2021, 08:16 PM
Apr 2021

One thing George Carlin was right about rights can be taken away at anytime.

I mean voting rights rather than gun control. I support regulations when it comes to guns.

Hekate

(90,202 posts)
15. Countless multitudes, and most of them have "clubs" of believers. Take your pick...
Fri Apr 9, 2021, 06:19 AM
Apr 2021

I rather agree with Granny Weatherwax, who knew they existed but didn't have any truck with them, preferring to be about her own business and let them get on with theirs.



Binkie The Clown

(7,911 posts)
6. We have whatever rights we can manage to wrest from the grasp of the powerful.
Thu Apr 8, 2021, 08:29 PM
Apr 2021

Beyond that, Mother Nature grants us only the right to get old, to get sick, and to die.

Eko

(7,170 posts)
9. Is there an invoice?
Thu Apr 8, 2021, 10:37 PM
Apr 2021

receipts? A memo, a post it note, voicemail, an email? Something that actually shows the rights this supposed god has given us? Cause I cant find any.

Sympthsical

(8,936 posts)
10. A lot of the philosophy undergirding the Declaration and Constitution is Natural Law
Thu Apr 8, 2021, 10:59 PM
Apr 2021

You've got your Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, etc. And it was the idea that we are, by virtue of our existence and how humans generally behave, afforded certain rights. And that any government that would deny or infringe on those rights should be changed or overthrown.

This is, of course, a very simplified version of things. To really get a handle on where the founders' heads were at, you could flip through Hobbes' "Leviathan" and "De Cive."

But that's the genesis of the idea of "God Given Rights" as it evolved in regards to English law and its extension into America.

The founders' entire idea was that American government be based on principles of Natural Law.

Not sure where guns go with that one, though.

Response to El Supremo (Original post)

Hekate

(90,202 posts)
17. The Creator was mentioned in the Declaration--but most of the Founders were Deists...
Fri Apr 9, 2021, 06:31 AM
Apr 2021

...not Christians, and did not intend that the new nation should be founded on any sect of Christianity or any other religion. Mentioning a Creator was fairly generic. In any case, they were educated men of their time, and also close enough in time to the blood-soaked religious wars of Europe to not want to carry that forward.

America’s modern day Evangelicals are so far from original Protestantism as to be practically heretical. They are not educated in history, on the whole, and in their home-schooling textbooks and Bible College texts have written a mythology rather than a history of this country, in which the USA was founded as a specifically Christian nation.

Mariana

(14,849 posts)
18. I would ask anyone who says that
Fri Apr 9, 2021, 06:45 AM
Apr 2021

to show me in the Bible where it is even hinted that God grants rights to everyone. What God does in the Bible is dictate a multitude of commandments and laws that the people are required to obey. The vast majority of those are not to be found in our laws in this country today, for good reason. In fact, the First Amendment to our Constitution directly contradicts several of the Ten Commandments.

RobinA

(9,878 posts)
20. The Way I Understand
Fri Apr 9, 2021, 08:30 AM
Apr 2021

the whole Creation timeline, guns weren't even invented when God was a pup, so no.

Mysterian

(4,524 posts)
21. Of course not.
Fri Apr 9, 2021, 08:33 AM
Apr 2021

Anyone who believes in supernatural beings which control our lives needs to be under psychiatric care.

El Supremo

(20,365 posts)
24. I should have posted this in the Religion Group.
Fri Apr 9, 2021, 08:48 PM
Apr 2021

Maybe then there wouldn't be so many nonrelevant atheist replies.

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