by So begins the reasoning for why we separated from Britain. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It goes on to say that governments are established to secure these rights.
What does it mean that certain truths are self evident? It means that they do not need to be proved, that they are intrinsically true.
When the founders made this statement they were setting the foundation for our country. The reason that it has lasted this long is because it was placed firmly out of the control of government and law. What has happened since is that we have seen those self-evident truths either ignored or discredited to the point that we now are seeing the last vestiges of the foundation being mangled.
How did this happen? Well, it could be the advent of country-wide acceptance of evolutionary theory. One of the side effects of this “religious belief” of goo-to-you-via-the-zoo philosophy is to deny the self-evident truth of a Creator. Deny that one has a Creator, and it’s easy to deny that rights derive from that Creator.
Also, add to it the post modern philosophy that truth is not knowable and all beliefs are of the same weight and you confuse issues and establish no foundation from which to build.
The problem: once the founding principles of this country are removed totally, everything becomes acceptable and everything is given moral blessing. In essence, we become just like the lands our ancestors left, and throw away the thing which made us unique in the world– a recognition of rights outside those which government could give and take away.
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