| </span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (AnonT,)
I think the mistake some people here are making is the difference between "rights" and "guarantees". You have the 'right' to vote, but you're not obligated to. When arrested, you have the right to remain silent - but if you want to confess right away without a lawyer, go right ahead.
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You have the right to life - or, rather, you have the right not to have your life forcefully taken away from you by someone else. If you're drowning in the middle of the ocean, your right to life doesn't mean that someone is obligated to save you. However, if someone is swinging a hammer at your head, you do have the right to not be killed by it.
Doesn't mean you won't die anyway.
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You have the right to liberty - or, at least, the right to do what you want as long as it doesn't stop anyone else from doing what they want.
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You have the right to pursue happiness - but not the guarantee that you'll ever get it. You may attempt to make yourself happier, at least in ways that don't harm others, but nobody has to try to make you happy if you're not.
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I agree with the assertion that people confuse rights with guarantees, and this always is what's happening when people claim that there are "Natural Rights." They believe that there is some guarantee, some entitlement to having these so-called natural rights observed and respected by all. This is not the case (at least in my Atheist universe without a supreme authority).
However, it seems that you commit the same error, just to a lesser extent.
You have no natural (inherent) "right not to have your life forcefully taken away from you by someone else" (regardless of the LEGAL right). In nature, animals murder animals, and the only inherent law (and I use the term figuratively and loosely) is "survival of the fit." It may be a bit more moral to respect others' right to live, and certainly more legal, but morality and law are not natural or inherent.
Without the artificial legal and social obligations of civilization, it doesn't matter if you "stop anyone else from doing what they want." No obligations exist outside of society. All rights are inventions--false obligations imposed upon the populus to insure the security and contentment of some by restricting the actions of others. |