In Defense of Freedom [Back to Top]
According to "Devilstower", a blogger on the DailyKos website, human rights are more important than national security. She explains, “Even if it was sure to be lost in a terrorist attack today, my life is not worth the Constitution. The life of my child is not worth the Constitution.” This same blogger believes that presidents Bush, Roosevelt, and Lincoln set aside their duty to uphold the Constitution in exchange for the illusion of security. “Devilstower” seems to have missed the whole idea behind instituting a Constitution, which is that government is instituted to protect the peoples’ right to life, liberty and property, and the right to defend themselves against those who would rob, enslave, or kill them. This right, which the Constitution is designed to protect, is derived from Natural Law* not from the Constitution itself.

The Origin of John Locke's Natural Rights Philosophy [Back to Top]
The Declaration of Independence embodied the ’sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters, printed essays, or the elementary books of public right… Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney. Basically, there is a ‘natural order’ of things in the world, cleverly and expertly designed by God for the guidance of mankind; the ‘laws’ of this natural order may be discovered by human reason; these laws so discovered furnish a reliable and immutable standard for testing the ideas, the conduct, and the institutions of men. How did this become the prevailing idea “back in the day”?