So there were no rights or laws before what? I'm agnostic, so I obviously don't believe rights come from a god. They're an agreed upon set of statutes based on common compromise, like he says. Why do I need a god in order to have the right to exist, etc?
Originally Posted by UnderConstruction
Lets not go off into the stupid zone just yet.
Most institutions say that rights come from one of two sources; God (more on that in a second) or man.
Those who say God also say Nature. These are the natural rights people. Everyone born is not marked as a slave or a king. On the surface everyone is the same if you get away from familial connections. So before you go off on your atheist (or agnostic) high horse this also includes nature.
There are those who say man gives rights and of course the counter is that man can take them away. How to take them away? By consensus of course or by force. If you can convince the majority of the people (like in a representative republic) that one group deserves more rights then it can become law. Of course if you can convince the same group to take away rights then it too can become law.
An argument for God (or Nature) is that anyone who suggests or campaigns to obstruct those rights is really suggesting that they have a better idea than God or Nature. Pretty pompous if you ask me.
Those who go with man given rights (not laws, that is another topic) can always fall back on the position that the original law maker did not have all the information. Or course they could also be corrupt. Think of the Nuremburg Laws in Nazi Germany when the Nazi party decided that Jews did not rate the same rights as a "German" citizen.
God (or Natural) rights do not change rapidly if they change at all. Murder has been a crime for thousands of years, as has theft.
A man given right advocate can decide that murder is justified if the victim is unworthy of protection and make it into those man created laws.
The most obvious take away is that conservatives believe in God (or Nature) given rights whereas the left, specifically the socialist, anarchist, and Marxist movements.