2006
Atheism and Unalienable Rights
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by Robert E. Meyer
"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…" We are familiar with this phrase from our Declaration of Independence, but have we considered its logical implications and outworking? Probably not very much at all.
Atheists and Humanists are among the most vocal proponents of a society with an obsession to assert their collective "rights." But since these secular "religions" are practically branches of the philosophy of naturalism, where everything that exists is a product of matter in motion, we might legitimately ask "from whence do these rights cometh?" If humanity evolved from the slime of a prehistoric pond, it seems silly to even anoint our race with so lofty an attribute as "human dignity." If what the infidel says about the origin of man is true, then any rights he claims are as illusionary as the disappearing animals in a Las Vegas magic show.
Skeptics want to deny that rights come from God, but if they are correct in that assertion, then there is no sound philosophical footing girding their perpetual claim to any rights. They are walking on a tenuous tightrope of conceptual fiat. Obviously they have not thought this issue through very carefully. The prime purpose of law is to protect an associated right. The commandment "Thou shall commit no murder" ordains the right to life. "Thou shall not steal" asserts the right to property. The biblical prohibition against man-stealing conveys the right to liberty. The Commandments given to the ancient Hebrews is the flagship establishing those rights, thus making them transcendent and absolute.
They were certainly not invented out of thin air by men, several centuries later–and it is a good thing that they weren't brought about that way. Whatever a government can give, it can take away on a whim, simply because governments are corrupt and have the power of coercion.
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