Previously I took some time to look at the Declaration of Independence and its status as a legal, binding document for America. In briefly addressing Jefferson’s use of “the Creator” and “Nature’s God” in the Declaration, I wrote this:
Yet the Declaration’s language of “Nature’s God” and the “Creator”—tenuously religious terms of 18th Century Deists, skeptical of religion and the Judeo-Christian God—are nowhere to be found in the U.S. Constitution. Instead we find prohibitions. Article VI mandates that “no religious test” shall be required to hold public office, and the First Amendment prohibits government from taking any official action with respect to religion, or prohibiting the free exercise, thereof. From these prohibitions, Jefferson’s wall of separation between church and state is clearly visible, and the Judeo-Christian God (or any god, for that matter) are forever shut out of our Constitution.
Thus, we have an inherently godless Constitution, irrevocably committed to a purely secular form of government. And the idea of a Christian Nation becomes little more than the wishful thinking of religious-minded power-mongers and mealy-mouthed ministers seeking to expand the scope of their influence beyond their congregation—a concept that is utterly and completely at odds with the core principles at the heart of our guarantees of life, liberty, and property.
Having said that, this morning I am presented with this bit of letter-to-the-editor insanity:
[Referring to Jefferson's use of "the Creator" and "Nature's God"]
It seem that in the past 30 to 50 years, there are those who deny [these words]. There are those who say that America is not a Godly nation but a secular one. This is what is taught in the schools right in town there today. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. The above makes it clear that the soul of our nation is founded in “Creation”, that that soul has a “Creator” and not an evolution. Unalienable” settles it. That means “God given”. And therein lies the rub. If our rights come from God, they cannot be taken by government. If they come from evolution and thus man, a government of men can dictate them totally.
To start, I could easily illustrate the lack of reasoning behind the letter writer’s argument and ask if it is only within the last 30 years or the last 50 years that the idea of a purely secular state has been advanced. Either way, the idea of a purely secular state has been around for much longer than even 50 years. In fact, the idea of a secular state has been around since the Founding.
Next, one is left to wonder how the letter writer gets from “Creator” to “Creation” and the refutation of evolution. That is truly a stunning piece of mental gymnastics.
The … statement of rights is unique in the history of men. Individual liberty with God given personal rights. Where did that come from?
Is the statement of rights in the Declaration of Independence—the statement that “we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”—unique? No, not at all.
In his Second Treatise on Civil Government, published in 1690, John Locke engages in an extensive discussion on the concepts later reflected, verbatim, in the Declaration of Independence.
And ’tis not without reason, that he seeks out, and is willing to joyn in Society with others who are already united, or have a mind to unite for the mutual Preservation of their Lives, Liberties, and Estates, which I call by the general name, Property.
Locke, J. The Second Treatise of Civil Government, Chap. IX, On the Ends of Political Society and Government, § 123, l. 13-17.
The philosophical intent of the use of “Creator” is not an affirmation of the Christian God, nor of any god for that matter. If we look back to Locke’s Treatise—for it was Locke’s reasoning that informed Jefferson and the other Founders—we find the idea of the Christian God as having any claim over the civil society to be completely refuted. Society and society’s laws are the product of our logic and reason in light of our self-directed interests. The intent of the usage of the term “Creator” is to state that the rights we possess are inherent and inalienable by virtue of our very existence, regardless of whether we are created by the Judeo-Christian God, some other god, or by cosmic happenstance.
Thus, the existence of a god is utterly irrelevant to the discussion and our rights exist regardless of how we came to be. If we are the creation of the Christian God, or if it is somehow proven that no god exists at all and we are the creations of little green men from another galaxy, or if we sprouted, sui generis, from the primordial ooze, the proposition equally stands that our rights to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” are, and remain, inalienable by our very existence.
In the end, the language of the Declaration is largely pointless. The Declaration of Independence does not provide any law or legally bind us as a society. What forms our laws, guarantees our rights, and serves as the basis from which our government may act is the U.S. Constitution and the laws enacted thereby.
Locke, J. (2005). Two treatises of government. Laslett, P., ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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