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Whence do the rights enumerated in the Constitution arise? If the Constitution does not follow the precedent of the Declaration of Independence on that matter -- that men are endowed with those rights by a Creator God -- then what new precedent does it establish? What are the origins of our rights?

If you say "government," then any government that grants those rights is entitled to take them away. If you say "nature" or something equally vague, you are in essence saying God, although you lack the courage to use the word.

The only other possibilities are chilling: our rights arise because we say they do. So if we eventually say they don't, they don't. Or we assume certain rights because of public utility. However, if that utility changes, then the rights vanish. The relativist school poses a serious threat to our notion of democracy.

When all is said and done, the rights listed by the Constitution arise from a divine author, or we are simply serfs under a different king.

The whole argument arises, I think, from confusion with what "rights" are and what "privledges" are.. A government can only grant privledges.. Rights are beyond any government to grant..

For who grants those rights is the issue.. and the issue IS that there is an authority above that of any government.. People that reject God are relegated to government or anarchy.. or some mix of it like democracy..

People that accept God simply have more options.. Argument between the two groups are doomed to failure because its comparaing apples and oranges.. i.e. the political divide and polariztion in America today..

The so-called liberal and conservatives riff is just a working out of this, I think.. Two different paradigms argueing with each other.. with two monolgues.. because there is no middle ground.. A mix between them cannot work because the God side will not be honored.. even though the God side will try to honor the other side.. with the No God side its their way or the highway.. because to them the government is all there is.. including God is uncivilized.. and unintellectual..

If the God people don't adopt the attitude of my or the highway (that the other side respects) they WILL lose in the long run, in the end.. You cannot appease and win.. Appeasement loses ground with no gain.. You cannot win or even remain stable and stagnant that way.. That is WHY the American Constitution is being frittered away.. and it surely is..

Attack God in the American Constitution and you attack DIRECTLY all the rights given by their guarantor.. With the end result of demoteing them and morphing them into priviledges.. And end up with governments like Canada, England, France, Germany who have ZERO rights at all..
Merely PRIVLEDGES...