Recently, Dan asked an interesting and important question: Is self-defense a human invention or is it God-given? If there is no right to self-defense, there is surely no right to the implements necessary to exercise that right, no right to keep and bear arms. If that’s the case, we live, essentially, in a state of nature, where, as Thomas Hobbes wrote in Leviathan (1651), life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Anything large and vicious enough to take life may do so and . . .
unless their intended victims are equally large, vicious, and martially skilled, there is no ready, convenient means to stop them. Women, children, the weak, elderly or otherwise infirm are nothing more than prey, and all are prey to a totalitarian government that recognizes only its own imperatives.
Dan’s question provoked a great deal of commentary. Here is a sampling:
Art Out West:
All of our rights are bestowed upon us by our Creator. This includes the right of self defense, and a right to the tools of defense. Yes, we have a Creator. The God of the Bible always allowed for the defense of innocent life.The statists believe that the State is supreme, that it is in a sense “god”. That is why they believe that it has the authority to bestow, or remove all rights.
Chris:
As an athiest – Self-Defense is still a “Natural” right. You can attempt to defend your life from attack with whatever tool is handy. Cats, Dogs, mice, rabbits, Deer, etc etc etc – all have weapons with which to use.People are part of the animal kingdom. We just happen to be the top of it, With the best toys.
{and note, that’s just the right to try – doesn’t mean you’ll succeed of course}.
Sian:
Denying someone the ability and means to defend themselves from one intent on doing them harm is tyranny at best, outright evil at worst. It’s really just that simple.Michael Nieto:
the right to armed self defense is self evident like all human rights as all creatures inherently will protect themselves. i haven’t the wisdom or knowledge to say if it comes from the divine.Chip Bennett:
Where does the concept of “morals” come from, if not from God? Where does the concept of absolute right and wrong come from, if not from God?Grindstone:
“Where does the concept of “morals” come from, if not from God? ”Why not ask the MILLIONS of people who lived with morals long before the Jews were anything more than desert nomads? In all functioning societies, things like murder are outlawed because if people are constantly dying, then you can’t have a functioning society. It’s pretty freaking simple.
Disclaimer: I am a Christian. That I am is a logically, practically, well-considered choice, which is the basis of Christianity. I have no need to prove the existence of God. God says, “I am that I am,” and I chose to say “right.” I accept this on faith, which is what God asks, not demands, not threatens. We freely choose to believe in God or we don’t. There is no conflict between my religious beliefs and science, or logic, or a just and limited government that derives its powers from the consent of the governed.
I have faith because it answers life’s most meaningful questions–to the degree they can be answered in this fallen, earthly existence. I feel that human beings have a spiritual dimension, an emptiness in the soul, if you will, that God, and only God can fill. But most of all, because I am a professional, classically trained singer, when I study and perform the music of men who can only have been touched by God–something else I choose to believe–I see the hand of God, and it moves me more than I can possibly express.
Does a right–an unalienable right–to self-defense exist simply because, as an animal, we, like all animals, are generally willing to fight to survive? Obviously, such a right can’t be unalienable, because there can be no penalty for violating it. In a state of nature, we are poorly equipped for survival; there are a great many creatures that can make a tidy and rapid lunch of us. Obviously only the strongest have a chance in such a scheme, and because animals act on instinct, how can morality enter into their killing and eating us? Obviously, there can be no such crime as murder, no crime at all, just unending struggle for mere existence.
Whether one chooses to believe in God, there is practical value to acknowledging the logic of God as the creator. Some have observed that there were moral codes prior to the Ten Commandments, and this is true, however, they were not absolutes based on the inestimable value of each individual life, a life that had value because it was given by God, and therefore, had a soul that could choose or reject eternal life. Again, believe it or not, as you choose, but follow along for a few minutes.
Thomas Cahill, in his fine book, The Gifts Of The Jews, argues that when God spoke to Abraham and made the Jews his chosen people, everything changed. Before that moment, people lived not as individuals with an individual future, a future they controlled, but as spokes in a great, ever-turning wheel, interchangeable servants in various kingdoms, their lives and fates predetermined by accidents of birth and whims of potentates. Individuals mattered little, and rights hardly existed at all. Instead, elite classes had lavish privileges, but even they could be put to death at the whim of rulers.
This was not the only gift of the Jews, but it was the most important, and one we take for granted, one that is the very foundation of our republic: individual sovereignty, If Cahill’s interpretation is correct–I choose to believe it is–that voice speaking to Abraham was the beginning of the right to self-defense, because we have a soul, and that soul has the opportunity to be something more than we are. That is why we are different from all the animals, no matter how similar to some our DNA may be.
While one may argue that it is possible to live a moral life without belief in God, it is arguably easier and more productive to do so with belief in God. Beginning with a God-given right to self-defense adds a strong moral component to what quickly becomes a political football.
The First Amendment embodies the separation of church and state, but it does not eliminate moral arguments, and what stronger moral argument can one find? We can suggest that morality and emotion have no effect on politics, but we know better. All too often they overwhelm reason and law, so who better to have on our side on those occasions than the Almighty? Even if you don’t believe, you’ll still accept the help, the effect, I presume?
Some have argued that without law, no right has meaning. Law is a necessary step, and an extension of God’s law. However, whatever man can write is a poor imitation. Yet we have the Constitution, the most important and perfect governing document ever devised by men. And we have federal, state and local gun laws, all much less perfect.
Unfortunately, even the Constitution is only ink on paper. As some have discovered during the reign of Obama the First, to our horror, the Constitution means only what those we elect to represent us choose to say it means. If Americans of each generation do not revere the Constitution and believe in its principles, if they do not hold to that ancient faith, as Abraham Lincoln put it, then it is only ink on paper, because rights are abstractions in the human mind, and laws, merely our attempt to record those abstractions and claim them inviolable.
If appealing to a higher power, to morality and power beyond our understanding helps us to hold to that ancient faith, and helps to influence, even convince others, is that not worthwhile?
Ultimately, the Second Amendment exists not only for the purposes of self-defense, but to provide Americans the ability to resist a tyrannical government. It is perhaps less difficult than ever for Americans to imagine what was once all but unimaginable. Should such resistance ever become necessary, we will need all the moral suasion we can muster, for many, perhaps most, will not be eager to abandon their lives unless and until a despotic government makes it individually impossible for them to lead normal lives. By then, it may be too late.
One can say that unalienable rights exist merely by virtue of the existence of homo sapiens, but if so, what Man invents, Man may destroy. Such rights exist only as long as the balance of power allows it, and only as long as men choose to believe in such rights. That tends to change when self-interest changes. Take away electricity, functional gas pumps and running water and all bets are off.
God created man and gave him a soul, which imbues him with inestimable individual worth. Therefore, man has an unalienable right to life — to self-defense. Therefore, the Constitution recognizes — not creates — the right to keep and bear arms, because not everyone has the size, strength and skill to protect their life with bare hands, and because it may be necessary to force government to honor the Constitution. Therefore murder is a capital crime. Therefore the right to keep and bear arms secures every other right. Which is the stronger argument, that or one beginning with man has an unalienable right to life just because man says so?
America remains a nation where most of its citizens profess a belief in the Christian concept of God. Fewer, of course, can be seen actively acting on that belief, but their numbers are not to be underestimated or ignored.
The best part is that whatever our belief in the origin of the unalienable right to self-defense, that belief remains a matter of choice. Practically, however, it would be unwise to ignore the social and political utility and persuasive power of the belief that its origin is God, a power far beyond man, government, even any pseudo-messiah worshiped by a political party.
Your choice.