Endowed By Our Creator

I’m remembering today that there are certain unalienable rights endowed by our Creator. I’m not sure how much people realize that without that endowment, the rights come from nowhere, have no firm foundation, and are ultimately at the whim of whomever has the most power.

Without a Creator, we are particles bouncing around in a senseless universe, mocked by our own consciences which make us look for meaning where there is none. We are highly evolved puddles of primordial ooze, and though we may have lots of neat features, like speech and ingenuity, we have never been anything more than ooze. And to the ooze we shall return. I hope we think this one through to its logical conclusion: ooze doesn’t have rights. It’s just ooze.

If we are simply highly evolved mud puddles, we get no guaranteed freedom, no right to life, no ultimate value to life, and nothing that moderates those in power. In the twilight of the gods, there is only the uberman. If there is no God in charge, authority shifts to whomever takes charge.

If, on Independence Day, we even for a moment catch a hint of the combination of nostalgia and loyalty that we know as patriotism, if for even a moment we realize that not everyone in our world shares a measure of our freedom, I hope we realize that it’s because we’re not particles. It’s because someone made us valuable, and he died to set us free.

With whomever you gather around the dinner table or picnic blanket tonight, hold hands and give thanks.