General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDo 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/
Skittles
(152,965 posts)that's all it is
AZProgressive
(29,322 posts)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.
There is no god.
Celerity
(42,666 posts)Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)Hekate
(90,202 posts)scarytomcat
(1,706 posts)Is there a club?
Hekate
(90,202 posts)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.
scarytomcat
(1,706 posts)Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)Beyond that, Mother Nature grants us only the right to get old, to get sick, and to die.
Goodheart
(5,264 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,369 posts)How weak God must be if man can take them away.
Eko
(7,170 posts)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)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.
PufPuf23
(8,689 posts)Hekate
(90,202 posts)Response to El Supremo (Original post)
Celerity This message was self-deleted by its author.
Hekate
(90,202 posts)...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.
Americas 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)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.
Silent3
(15,020 posts)That's dubious and ill-defined at best.
RobinA
(9,878 posts)the whole Creation timeline, guns weren't even invented when God was a pup, so no.
Mysterian
(4,524 posts)Anyone who believes in supernatural beings which control our lives needs to be under psychiatric care.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Which is obviously a silly notion.
El Supremo
(20,365 posts)Maybe then there wouldn't be so many nonrelevant atheist replies.