----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2001 7:08 PM Subject: Re: Caveat populi
While I agree with most of what you say, I do have a point of disgareement: >I always find it perplexing > to here people talk about "natural rights" or > inalienable rights. As lovely as these ideas are > they are in fact not at all natural. The philosophy > that underlies them is relatively recent and the ideas > themselves were radical political notions less than > three centuries ago. Don't get me wrong. I think the > notion that we grant ourselves certain basic freedoms > and protections is one of the great advances of human > culture but this is not some absolute birth right handed > down from god. Men invented this notion. That is one prespective. However, it is not the perspective of the founders of the country, or of me. Jefferson did not think that he was creating anything when he wrote about inalienable rights, he thought he was recognizing turths. Indeed, I think one of the great contributions to human society is the tying in of social justice with the creation of humankind in God's image and likeness that is found in the Torah. Dan M.
