Tell me something exmarine, where were the rights of the slaves in the antebellum south? America has had many evil rulers and it still does. Even our own President, Bush, is not that concerned with how his actions may result in a more tyrannical successor to Clinton being able to control the public.
The only way to keep an evil ruler out of power is to so thoroughly limit the governments' power that they cannot control us except in the most basic ways. The only way to deal with an evil ruler and his/her supporters once civilized means have failed is deadly force. The fundamental premise of our "democracy" that you are not responsible for the views you hold is wrong. If you back a despot you are as much a legitimate target of violence as he or she is.
Nature doesn't work. Nature is both cruel and non-cruel.
Nature works perfectly. Nature is neither cruel or caring, it just is what it is.
Did God just wind up the clock and step back - deism?
On the macro-level, yes.
Cruelty doesn't exist? Is that what you are saying? Marquis de Sade said, "what is, is right." Do you agree with him?
The only way to keep an evil ruler out of power is to so thoroughly limit the governments' power that they cannot control us except in the most basic ways.
Evil exists? Evil is active in the world but God isn't? That's a head scratcher.
The fundamental premise of our "democracy" that you are not responsible for the views you hold is wrong. If you back a despot you are as much a legitimate target of violence as he or she is.
We have a republic not a democracy. Who said a person isn't responsible for their views?
Tell me something exmarine, where were the rights of the slaves in the antebellum south? America has had many evil rulers and it still does. Even our own President, Bush, is not that concerned with how his actions may result in a more tyrannical successor to Clinton being able to control the public.
Most of the founders were anti-slavery, but some of the southern ones had a blind spot. All men are sinners - I look at the whole man. Most founders were profoundly against slavery and it almost broke up the Const. Convention. So, it was deferred. The nation was judged for it 75 years later - 660,000 dead. We will be judged for our immorality now as well - matter of when and how longsuffering God is. Read the Northwest Ordinance to get an insight about the founders' view of slavery (1789). Know what it says? It's a Christian document by the way as well as a U.S. govt. document.
Did you forget that it was white Christian men who abolished slavery? It started with William Wilberforce in England - abolished 1835 in English colonies. That it was CHRISTIANS at the core of that movement? That it was WHITE MEN who passed the 13th amendment?