“... it sounds like the rants of anarchists and libertarians who have a basic animus against authority in general.”
I am neither an anarchist or a libertarian but I accept no authority over my life or my mind. No one may morally hold authority over another human being.
I know most men despise liberty because it means responsibility and most people are terrified of being totally responsible for their own life and choices.
Perhaps they need their “authorities” and “rulers.” I do not.
I am glad to let others enslave themselve to anything or anyone they those. If they would only grant me the same and allow me to be free. I do not need them. Why do they need me?
We are not going to agree. I am an independent individualist, through and through. I have nothing in common with anyone who is not totally independent.
Hank
You confuse upholding the need for government in general with being totally responsible for one’s own life and choices, as the former does not necessarily negate the latter.
As for Independence, on one level we are all interdependent whether we realize it or not, even for our Internet connection, while God can stop us in a heart beat. And in the moral realm, being free does not mean liberty without necessary limits, unless you are what you deny. And while some adults are well governed, unless they want themselves and everyone to live with a gun at their side, they depend upon government, despite delusions that others will govern themselves without it.
In addition, while man is given an innate sense of morality, (Rm. 2) yet the “golden compass’ of man can easily point south, and living according to the objectively baseless moral reasoning of atheism provides no assurance or test of morality. While corrupting immutable moral laws of the Bible man can also do evil, this is made manifest in the light of the standard, and even the golden rule presumes a foundational morality.