From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Thu Sep 21 2000 - 09:48:13 MDT
hal@finney.org wrote:
>
> Forrest writes:
> > The reason for an armed populace is very, very fundamental:
> >
> > "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
> > that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
> > that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
>
> Do you actually view it to be self-evident that we have a creator, and
> that he (sorry, "He") endowed us with rights? I not only don't think
> it is self-evident, but I don't even think it is at all likely. Is this
> the foundation for why you believe we should have an armed populace?
Hal, you keep thinking in deiocentric terms. You have not always existed, right?
You came into being at some point. You were created by some cause. You parents?
Definitely. Nature? Definitely. Some 'god'? Indeterminate. Note that Forrest's
quote does not say THE creator, but 'their creator', referring to the creator of
each individual, in respect to each individual.
"Nature has not endowed man with claw, nor fang, nor talon, nor horn, but with
the hand. Any tool or weapon that a man can wield with the hand is his natural
right to use and posess."
Likewise, in a state of nature, man speaks, associates, thinks and worships
freely, roams where he wills, constructs technological artifacts from raw
materials, mates, raises a family, provides for himself and his family and
friends, and defends all these against the depredations of time, nature, and
other humans, all these are his natural right to do, as he has been evolved to
do.
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