Lagardo said:
According to the Declaration of Independence, they are life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. The constitution was written, not to grant, but to protect these rights. It assumes these rights exist.
Perhaps a slip of the shift key lead you to think I was making a statement about God, when I was making a statment about our Constitution.
The constitution and the declaration of independence are no more scripture than our nation is Christian, but nonethelss, the law of the land assumes these rights exist.
Now I'm not trying to be mean with that question, Lagardo, but,no, it was not a slip of the shift key. You clearly said God-given rights. And you're not the only one I heard that phrase from. Matter of fact, years ago, when I was part of the struggle against the dictatorship in my country, I used to use that phrase myself in sit-ins and the various stuff we "revolutionaries" did to get the workers and peasants all riled up.
Years later, as a Christian I got to thinking about that. The Bible speaks of no rights that God gave to anyone. Not the right to pursuit of happiness, not the right to be free from hunger, or from fear, not the right to liberty, or the right to life. God spoke out against what we call crimes today, such as murder, adultery, rape, incest, theft, unequal treatment, but He never said these are rights inherent to anyone.
I mean they are good stuff, but I feel if we say they were God-given we are taking the Name of the Lord in vain. They are human ideals. Period.