Expert: Ed Buckner - 12/9/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hello Ed, I have enjoyed reading your answers to some previous questions and your thoughtful repsonses.  My question for you is this.... in your opinion where do our rights, in a general sense, as we know them in this country, come from?  Do you agree they are granted to us from our Creator, as our Declaration of Independence and Constitution state and allude too...or do they come from somewhere else?    peace, Eric

ANSWER: Dear Eric,

As an Atheist, I don't think there is a creator--or at least not a Creator--from whom anything could come. Instead I think such rights need to be treated as unalienable--in other words as inherently ours as individuals. Not given to us by any gods or governments, just as naturally ours. Regardless of whether anyone believes the origins of our rights are inherent, divine, or man-made social construction, they will not be preserved unless we think they should be.

Thanks for your compliments.

Regards,

Ed B.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello Ed, thanks for your response.  I thought I would ask a few more questions in seeing that your responses are respectful and quite thoughtful. If there is no God, no higher truth, no essential right and wrong in a philosophical sense.....Why should people have rights at all?  Why does it matter how we treat each other. And if rights are inherrent, why don't we all honor and respect each other's rights?   If this is just the way things "are" in the sense that we all have them, that they are not given or formally recognized by anyone outside of themselves... why aren't they just automatically respected by others?  In my estimation for a right to be...it must come from others.  Until it is recognized, or given, from someone outside of the self, it is not really there....it is just a wish....even if they inherently deserve them.

While you say that you are an athiest, I find that very hard to believe....at least I would hope so.  It seems you (and many athiests) are searching for what is true, no matter where that leads or what conclusions you come to.....I find that respectable......and if you are concerned with rights at all, then you must have a sense of compassion and justice....these are all atributes of Godliness if you ask me.  Hope you are well, and I look forward to your response.   Thanks, Eric

I don't believe in true athiests.  They don't exist. Why?
Supposed athiests believe in "not believing."  That is like a double negative.  To truly not believe in God, would be to not exist, to believe in anything, to be dead.  You are obvioiusly well alive, and a thinker at that.

Answer
Eric,

We're straying away from church/state issues and onto more philosophical turf here. That's OK, but it would take many pages and many hours to fully answer your questions and I lack the time. Try www.atheists.org for some answers.

A few points, some trivial, some not so:

1. The word is "atheist" (not "athiest") and means, at least to me, "without theism" or, more broadly "without supernatural beliefs."

2. I assure you that I am alive, I do exist, and I truly do not believe in any gods, as defined by any of the theists I've met or read the works of. It is certainly true that neither my lack of belief or your belief counts as evidence for or against the existence of god(s). Your lack of belief in the possibility of atheism does not count as evidence of the accuracy of that belief, either.

3. While I do not think there is any supernatural source for human ethics, it hardly follows that our ethics have no basis or are not important. How we live obviously matters to us, and how we treat each other is a major part of how we live. It is quite clear from human history, both recent and ancient, that people who accept one idea or another of gods or supernatural forces are not thereby impelled to honor the rights of others, so it is hard to see why religious belief has any necessary connection to human rights.

Read widely.

Regards,

Ed Buckner