This is what Thomas Jefferson had to say about our rights and where they come from.
You lifted that out of context. Here's the context:
quote:
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Which god was Jefferson referring to? He made that explict reference in the first paragraph which you had conveniently left out. That god was "
nature's God" Know where else we see that exact same formulation? In the writings of that great American patriot, Thomas Paine, whom the Religious Right condemns as an
atheist.
Since they believe that someone who believes in "nature's God" is an atheist, how can the Religious Right then honestly claim that that "nature's God" is the exact same thing as their biblical god? Quite simply, they cannot do so
honestly.
Please also note what else Thomas Jefferson wrote there. That government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. That the people have the right to disestablish one government and establish a new one for their own safety and happiness. And then we have the Preamble of the US Constitution:
quote:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The people taking it upon themselves to form their own government for their own benefit and for the benefit of their progeny.
I'm sure that you also lived through the 1980's and heard the rhetorics of the Religious Right at that time. They had a name for these ideas and ideals put forth in the Declaration of Independence and in the Preamble. That name was
secular humanism.
So how can they now honestly claim that these
secular humanist ideas and ideals are actually biblical? They cannot, not honestly.
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