The Thinking ‘Kat: Should Beliefs dictate Rights?
A short and simple post here, and a question. Down the years, I have read many arguments for the notion of ‘God-given rights’. For some, rights and freedoms in society are dependent upon practicing religion. Of course, depending on who you talk to, those same rights and freedoms are dependent upon practicing the right faith 😏, and practicing that faith in the one true way.
Should our rights ever be reliant upon what we believe?
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I guess the problem with the phrase is that it harks back to a time when a Christian Belief was prevalent, hence the idea of what you might call ‘Constitutional’ or ‘Civil’ or ‘Civic’ or ‘Basic’ Rights went hand in hand with the bottom line belief.
That said Humanity has a knack of taking a movement be it religious, political or social, which starts off as something essentially beneficial yet in an urge to ensure everyone ‘gets it’ enforce it, or imply that it was the said movement which thought of the whole idea in the first place and if you don’t buy in then you are ‘odd’ and to be ostracised.
At the risk of being called a heretic* by some other sections of the Christian Faith. As I see it God gave us free will and also a moral code which would be a set of good ideas to go along with, basically:
‘Be nice to each other. Be honest. Don’t kill. Don’t cheat/lie. Help each other.’
Yes there is a faith side, but personally I don’t buy into any messages about killing and persecuting other folk getting you into God’s Good Books. (that’s a way to ‘The Bad Place’)
So yeah I see them as God Given, but we have to work it all out, work with together and don’t be so durned picky about the details of how another person came to the same ideas as you did. Believe one way or another, or don’t believe. If you hold though to Compassion, Respect and Tolerance, then I’m with you too.
* PS, like I cared if anyone ‘down here’ calls me a heretic, I’ll defer whatever I did wrong to a much high authority and take the finger-wagging and stint in Purgatory on the chin
Thank you for your thoughtful comment Roger, it is much appreciated, and I also appreciate your position, even if others might not.