sgrizzy

Yeah and Kissinger was one of them

I wouldn't want you to miss my reply to your post before, so here it is:

Whoa! Youre really hitting the big questions!

Ok, its doubtful Im going to break your habit of God belief, so Ill just give you my point of view and you can take it from there.

Firstly there is no such thing as absolute rights. Rights are entirely manmade social contacts. The very idea of universal human rights is a very recent one. It was only ever put on paper in 1948 in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Even the US Bill of Rights was an entirely subjective document. It didnt even apply to a sector of your society that you had previously enslaved a few hundred years earlier until the 1960s. Prior to that is didnt apply to women, or those that didnt own land.

In the past the main connection between God and rights was that of the divine right to rule.

If you where to discuss natural rights, that would be the closest thing to an absolute right. The whole idea of human rights generally started during the enlightenment in Europe. As people shook off the concept of God and started to think rationally, they began to question authority in every sphere of society; relationship between servant and master, men and women, the church and state. Most of the rights that you have today are in spite of God, not because of God.

In political science we separate Rights into two groups; first is Positive Rights, the right to something, i.e. life, freedom, a fair trial, work etc. The second is Negative Rights, the right from something, servitude, violence, detention without trial.

But a right means nothing without society and the rule of law to back them up. Enforcement comes through the threat of State violence, not divine retribution, and since the State has a legal monopoly on violence, rights can only be enforced via a society.

Something off the point:
How can a Republican be a Christian? It makes no sense to me at all. Christianity and the teachings of Jesus are inherently, if not overtly, communist and at the least socialist. The New Testament teaches shared ownership, compassion and to each according to need. Christianity and even mildly rightwing Republicanism are completely at odds with each other in so many ways. Ask yourself if you think Jesus would be a Republican? I very much doubt it...