[tpaine]

"You're hopeless. Whether Paine was a deist or danced naked in the moonlight while howing at the stars, it doesn't matter, he understood that rights were granted by a higher authority than men. You don't have a clue."
2831

One can reasonably believe in a higher power than men, - but you cannot claim that this makes it 'understood' that our rights were so granted by some such being.
-- Thus, Thomas Paine could not in fact proclaim rights came from a higher authority, -- as he had rationality & common sense, above all.


Obviously, individual rights to life, liberty, & property come from the observational powers & reasoning abilities of men.

Why does this self evident truth incite so much fear among militant theists?

[jwalsh07]

"The illuminating and divine principle of the equal rights of man (for it has its origin from the Maker of Man), relates not only to the living individuals, but to generations of men succeeding each other. Every generation is equal in rights to the generations which preceded it, by the same rule that every individual is born equal in rights with his contemporary."

Sound familiar?