Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Where Do Human Rights Come from?

Where Do Human Rights Come from?

Last updated on: April 15, 2024 at 1:52 pm by Randy Alcorn

0 Comments

Where Do Human Rights Come from? 2024-03-22T13:55:04-08:00 Randy Alcorn

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A political commentator on MSNBC made the claim that if you believe human rights come from God, you aren’t just a Christian; you are a Christian nationalist. This is an amazing statement because if human rights don’t come from God, they can only come from people. Who else is left? Giraffes? Aliens? Nothing comes from nowhere.

Apparently, she trusts that people who don’t believe in God can somehow formulate a proper view of human rights. Ivan the Terrible, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. all demonstrate how tragically wrong she is. Of course, people can say they believe in God and be racist murdering dictators, but in fact, it is their own views of selective human rights that give rights to themselves, and those loyal to them, and deny the rights of everyone else that they can use for their own purposes, including slave labor and holocausts. The Holocaust Museum in Israel, where they read the names of slaughtered children for hour after hour after hour, and walking on the killing fields of Cambodia with hundreds of thousands of human bones at my feet, cemented this in my mind. Period.

I remember reading an atheist decades ago who was saying how deeply grateful he was that many people believed in God, because he admitted that he had no basis whatsoever for human rights, and at least God-fearing people did, even though he believed they were wrong. He understood that if human rights are decided by humans, no human is safe.

Richard Wurmbrand, tortured in communist prisons, wrote, “The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe. When man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil, there is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil which is in man. The communist torturers often said, ‘There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.’”

We know murderers and rapists violate human rights. But how do we know this? We have a consensus about objective moral standards, and we even agree on many of them. But if God does not exist, then on what objective basis could human rights exist?

Rights must come from somewhere. The Declaration of Independence claims “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” But what if no Creator exists? Imagine a declaration saying, “Human beings, even those dumber than toast and too weak to survive on their own, are equal and have the same rights as the smart and strong.” Leave out the Creator and you leave out human rights.

After quoting the Declaration of Independence, Francis Schaeffer wrote in A Christian Manifesto:

Who gives the rights? The state? Then they are not inalienable because the state can change them and take them away. Where do the rights come from? They [i.e., the authors of the Declaration of Independence] understood that they were founding the country upon the concept that goes back into the Judeo-Christian thinking that there is Someone there who gave the inalienable rights. . .

Responding to the commentator I quoted at the beginning of this blog, Daniel Darling wrote:

Something a lot of journalists and pundits get wrong about the belief that natural rights “come from God.” This isn’t a signal that we want a theocratic state. It’s a belief that actually puts limits on what government can and cannot do. Governments, therefore, are stewards of liberty and cannot burden the conscience.

Even those who reject the claims of the Christian worldview should acknowledge that it does in fact offer a moral foundation upon which to base human rights, and to discern good and evil. And they should ask themselves whether, without realizing it, they sometimes borrow from the Christian worldview because their own worldview cannot provide a foundation on which to judge good and evil.

Without such a foundation, this world would be a frightening place to live in—as indeed it is wherever human rights are opposed or undermined.

Photo: Unsplash

Culture and Worldview

Previous Post

April 11, 2024

A Reader Recommended My Heaven Book after Reading One Page

Next Post

April 18, 2024 What Happiness Can We Anticipate on the New Earth?

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"The biblical references and examples make the message easy to follow, while the focus on ..."

harry085drop

Being with God Is the Heart ..."

"As we do good works (no matter how small), and struggle to live holy lives ..."

Tom Hering

How Can We Be Ready to ..."

"Katy Faust's "articles" are junk science at best."

Roger J.

Every Child Is Known and Loved ..."

"People can feed their thoughts or a few notes into AI and be delighted with ..."

rrhersh

AI, Ghostwriting, and the Ethics of ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category About Me Animals Books Books and Resources Christ Christian Life Christians Past and Present Church Creation Culture and Worldview Doctrine and Theology Eternal Perspective Ministries Fun Grace and Truth Grief Happiness Heaven Marriage and Family Missions Money and Giving Persecuted Church Politics Prayer Prolife Salvation Sexual Purity Sovereignty and Free Will Suffering and Evil Uncategorized Writing

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz