Inalienable (or “unalienable”) means “incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred” (Merriam-Webster) and “incapable of being removed” (Cambridge Dictionary).
An “unalienable right” is a right that “can’t be transferred to someone else, taken away, or denied”.
Unalienable and inalienable are synonyms, although some have argued that “unalienable” is something which is inalienable from birth (as opposed to something granted, that is, something ontological to the personhood of man). But the difference here does not matter as the Declaration of Independence describes these unalienable rights as being endowed by God and applicable to all man.
So let’s look at these “unalienable rights” that we are supposedly given by God.
The right to life:
The Declaration of Independence claims that God has endowed man with the unalienable right to life (that man has a right to his life and that this life cannot be removed or surrendered).
Is this true? Is the execution of a murderer a violation of the criminal’s right to life – a right that cannot be removed, alienated, or surrendered?
Why does man have a intrinsic right to life? Why do we think that God has given man this right? Why does Scripture tend to shy away from this idea, favoring instead that God created man not for man’s own purposes but for His glory – existing on this earth at the will of God rather than an unalienable right?
The right to liberty:
We are told that men have a right to liberty that is both unalienable and God given.
Liberty means “the power to do as one pleases; freedom from physical restraint, freedom from arbitrary or despotic control, a positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges; the power to choose” (Merriam-Webster).
Yet Scripture does not afford man this type of liberty, so is this really “endowed by our Creator”?
The right to the pursuit of happiness:
The Declaration of Independence declares that God has endowed men with the right to pursue happiness. This is perhaps the most obviously inconsistent “right” when we examine the list against Scripture. The reason is the context of the Declaration of Independence. The document is not a theological dissertation dealing with the Christian’s joy in Christ, but rather a document describing why a country is proclaiming its independence. It is a secular document. Do men have an unalienable right given by God since their birth to seek after their own happiness? No, of course not.
The irony is that the U.S. Constitution violates these rights. Where the Declaration of Independence proclaims the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to be God given and unalienable rights the U.S. Constitution allows for secular governmental laws to remove from its citizens these rights endowed by God which cannot be removed.
I am grateful the government seeks to give us these rights. But these are not God given, unalienable rights.
An “unalienable right” is a right that “can’t be transferred to someone else, taken away, or denied”.
Unalienable and inalienable are synonyms, although some have argued that “unalienable” is something which is inalienable from birth (as opposed to something granted, that is, something ontological to the personhood of man). But the difference here does not matter as the Declaration of Independence describes these unalienable rights as being endowed by God and applicable to all man.
So let’s look at these “unalienable rights” that we are supposedly given by God.
The right to life:
The Declaration of Independence claims that God has endowed man with the unalienable right to life (that man has a right to his life and that this life cannot be removed or surrendered).
Is this true? Is the execution of a murderer a violation of the criminal’s right to life – a right that cannot be removed, alienated, or surrendered?
Why does man have a intrinsic right to life? Why do we think that God has given man this right? Why does Scripture tend to shy away from this idea, favoring instead that God created man not for man’s own purposes but for His glory – existing on this earth at the will of God rather than an unalienable right?
The right to liberty:
We are told that men have a right to liberty that is both unalienable and God given.
Liberty means “the power to do as one pleases; freedom from physical restraint, freedom from arbitrary or despotic control, a positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges; the power to choose” (Merriam-Webster).
Yet Scripture does not afford man this type of liberty, so is this really “endowed by our Creator”?
The right to the pursuit of happiness:
The Declaration of Independence declares that God has endowed men with the right to pursue happiness. This is perhaps the most obviously inconsistent “right” when we examine the list against Scripture. The reason is the context of the Declaration of Independence. The document is not a theological dissertation dealing with the Christian’s joy in Christ, but rather a document describing why a country is proclaiming its independence. It is a secular document. Do men have an unalienable right given by God since their birth to seek after their own happiness? No, of course not.
The irony is that the U.S. Constitution violates these rights. Where the Declaration of Independence proclaims the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to be God given and unalienable rights the U.S. Constitution allows for secular governmental laws to remove from its citizens these rights endowed by God which cannot be removed.
I am grateful the government seeks to give us these rights. But these are not God given, unalienable rights.
