Day 4 - Rights...or You Got It (The Right Stuff)?

Oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh...

Today's class was pretty boring and I'll admit that I didn't spend that time thinking about the New Kids on the Block.  Especially Donnie (he's so street!)  All we talked about was human rights and what some of them may be.  Here is a definition of rights!

"Activity or opportunity we expect to have protected against the actions of others."

So human rights are rights that humans have (duh?) simply by virtue of being a human.  We then began to make some sort of a list of rights that humans could possibly have such as life, free speech, love, liberty, association, discovery, humane treatment, family, blah, blah, blah.  We went through some examples where we discussed a situation where people's rights could possibly be involved and more blah, blah, blah, blah.  But then the teacher posed a question that piqued my interest.  It was:

"Where do rights come from?"

The teacher said that this is a hard question and an answer to it can help to distinguish between different ethical theories.  There are three main answers to this question.  One is that all rights are legal rights, the next is rights are religiously based, and finally that our rights are based in human nature.

I especially liked that rights are religiously based (specifically based in the Christian God of the Bible) but we didn't go into any of the three choices very deeply.  That's probably going to be another class period (I can't wait).  But since class was boring my mind was wandering over the topic of God and rights and as this is my blog here are my thoughts on rights and how they relate to God.

I believe my teacher said that all three of the answers to the "Where do rights come from?" question have some deficiencies.  Now I naturally disagree with this (concerning answer number two) but the teacher said that all people must decide for themselves which way they're going to answer  the "Where do rights come from?" question.  However, this is a philosophy that, as C.S. Lewis said, puts God in the dock.  Here is the full quote:

"The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge.  For the modern man the roles are reversed.  He is the judge: God is in the dock....  The trial may even end in God's acquittal.  But the important thing is that Man is on the bench and God in the dock."

The philosophy that my teacher espouses puts man's reasoning and authority over God's reasoning and authority.  Let's say that God does not exist (or He is not as He says He is) then what right do we have to decide that we have intrinsic worth?  Would we get worth just because WE say so?  What justification could there be to hold this attitude?  I suppose that we could just choose to have this attitude, but would it necessarily be true?  Just because someone arbitrarily says, "Humans have intrinsic value by virtue of being a human" what about someone else saying, "No, humans do not have intrinsic value by virtue of being a human being."  If one can be arbitrary about the whole situation why shouldn't another person be just as arbitrary?

No, human rights are not just arbitrary choices made by people some time ago, rather humans have value because God has given us value.  David wrote:

 ³ When I consider your heavens,
       the work of your fingers,
       the moon and the stars,
       which you have set in place,

 ⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him,
       the son of man that you care for him?

 ⁵ You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
       and crowned him with glory and honor.

 ⁶ You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
       you put everything under his feet:

 ⁷ all flocks and herds,
       and the beasts of the field,

 ⁸ the birds of the air,
       and the fish of the sea,
       all that swim the paths of the seas.

 ⁹ O LORD, our Lord,
       how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:3-9)

In all of God's creation the the only reason that we have any value at all is because God has given us value, not ourselves.  God holds us in such with such a high value that He sent His Son to die for us and continues to forgive us even though we sin daily!    God has revealed His attitude to us in His word and in our hearts so we are to mirror this attitude in how we treat others.  So the 'rights' that my class came up with (life, association, humane treatment, discovery) can only be properly understood in the context of Christianity.

Wednesday's class is about justice.  Another Christian concept, huh?