Subject:
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Re: TJ acknowledged a Creator in DoI (was: Re: Those stupid liberal judges are at it again!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 11 Sep 2002 21:43:00 GMT
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Viewed:
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940 times
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"John" <John@TCLTC.org> writes:
> > In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richard Marchetti writes:
> > > In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal writes:
> > > How do you feel about TJ speaking about a Creator in the DoI?
>
> > How do you feel about having a very limited understanding of TJ's beliefs?
>
> > This has been asked and answered before, John.
>
> No, Richard, it hasn't. I am not arguing that TJ was a Christian or
> any such thing. What I am saying is that he acknowledged a
> Creator-- Prime Mover, God, Nature's God-- whatever you want to call
> it. And it is from this entity that our inalienable rights
> originate. I want the atheists to deal with that.
The value of the dollar was once based on the value of gold. It is
now based on absolutely nothing but the will of the people to keep it
going.
Similarly, our "inalienable rights" were originally based on the
commonly-held mythology of a God (or Creator). But now it is based on
the inertia and the basic common sense belief that such rights are a
Good Thing(tm). I believe that if the DoI were written today, it
would be talking about "basic human rights," based only on a sense of
right and wrong, not on a Creator.
For a more modern document that does not make any basis in faith or
religion of any kind, see the UN's Universal Declaration of Human
Rights:
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
The "Creator" language is an artifact of the day and age when it was
written. It was a rhetorical, metaphorical term. I think they used
that language because that's how people were accustomed to thinking in
those days. I am sure there was a contingent of Founders who did
believe in the Christian God and wanted it in there, and perhaps
"Creator" was a compromise. I dunno. But I don't think that it
matters today whether it's based on a Creator or not, any more than it
matters whether the dollar is backed by gold or not.
--Bill.
--
William R Ward bill@wards.net http://www.wards.net/~bill/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verbing weirds language. --Calvin
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