[Junior]

You are saying that our inalienable rights derive from our ability to protect and defend them? Ummm, I think you'll have a little trouble finding reasonable people to agree with that.

I doubt that seriously. The concept that rights only exist if one can defend them has a long philosophical history. "Divinely-endowed" rights were originally used by monarchs to secure their holds upon power. The rest of the population was able to secure only those rights they were willing to defend against said monarchs.

[Fester Chugabrew]

"The concept that rights only exist if one can defend them has a long philosophical history."

That's a far cry from saying inalienable rights exist because we can defend them. If man is "endowed" with these rights by virtue of a Creator - which is what our forefathers held, wrote out, and defended - then these rights exist apart from our ability to even recognize or defend them.