I think now is a good time to think about human freedom and whether or not our rights come from God or from the government. After all, the Declaration of Independence, by way of justifying the enormous steps the Founding Fathers were about to take, states “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.” And “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men . . .” That is, first comes the Creator, who then endows his creatures with “certain unalienable rights,” and then the creatures form governments to “secure those rights.” Does the government today, not only on the federal level but on the local state level, recognize the fact that they are merely in existence to secure the unalienable rights endowed on humanity by the Creator, or do they think that our rights come from the government itself? This is an interesting debate that is going on in our country today.
While thinking about this, I remembered one of the great Twilight Zone episodes written by the greatest television writer of all time, Rod Serling, titled "The Obsolete Man". As we contemplate on this debated issue today, I think this episode deserves a rewatch, except replace the word "obsolete" with "non-essential". Enjoy the show.
