We continue Don Moyer’s concluding remarks on why humans have rights. You can read part 1 below at the TPOL home page.

The founders said that these truths are “self-evident.” This means that these truths need no further proof; they prove themselves. That we are created by an Invisible Maker is self-evident (cf. Romans 1). That we have human rights because we are human is self-evident. That a government should seek to protect those rights (not impose their own arbitrary ones) is self-evident. 

Paul argued that a government’s purpose is to recognize the difference between good and evil (as defined by God), punish the evil-doers, and reward those who do well (Romans 13). What better reward can we have from a government than a protection of the rights with which we are endowed by our Creator? Government is to serve the purposes of God, not usurp them. 

This basic point has serious implications for several other issues. For example, how does this position affect an issue like abortion? Basically, abortion is performed by those who are exerting their power over the helpless (in this case, the infant). Abortionists do not recognize that the fetus is human, and therefore do not “bestow” human rights on “it,” as if such rights are theirs to bestow. This is really no different from a super-power government exercising itself over the will of the people and deciding which people have rights. Abortion is a conspicuous example of the “might makes right” mentality. “Right to privacy” is a cop-out because an inherent right to privacy does not include being able to exert power over the helpless and failing to respect their inherent rights as humans. Yet if the fetus is not human, then what is it? 

The point is that if we are going to continue to enjoy the rights we have, then we need to get back to biblical foundations recognized in the Declaration that all men are created equal and endowed by the Creator with their rights. Once we get away from this principle, we will fall headlong into a mentality that neither we nor our fathers could bear. May God help us to remember who we are! 

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*Peter Kreeft makes a case for this in his Apple Argument against Abortion. 

Comments from TPOL:

As mentioned in Part 1, we here at TPOL believe that what Don has written is worth reading and thinking about. Even for those who are non-believers. And we know that too many people who believe that they are following The Way of Christ Jesus still believe that they are required by their Creator to always obey human, mandatory rulers and governments unless such would specifically violate what they see as explicit commands found in the Bible. Don, to some degree, seems to imply that, in the way he discusses the apostle Paul’s writing.

At best, the Bible teaches that YHWH tolerates and uses human, mandatory government for His purposes. He tolerates them if they meet the standards which Paul provides in his letter to the Romans. But that is not the way the words “ordained” or “approved” is usually understood. There is no divine right of kings. Or presidents. Or parliaments or commissions.

TPOL strongly believes that the gift of liberty, of human freedom, is one of the great gifts of the Creator. And that human, mandatory government exists as a result of, and in rebellion against God. Including many religious groups who claim to be following Christ.

Like Don, we believe that all humans have rights given to them at Creation and to each person individually at the time of conception. We do agree with his arguments about abortion. It is homicide: the taking of a human’s life. And of an innocent human, at that. So it is, in classical libertarian or free-market anarchist philosophy, nothing more than violent aggression.

We realize that many libertarians do not believe in God, and do not believe that an unborn child is human and deserving of any rights. We respectfully disagree.