WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.880 Today, we talk about the right you have to your own life, kind of a crazy thought. 2 00:00:04.880 --> 00:00:10.600 But in half the world, the government doesn't believe you have a right to your own existence. 3 00:00:10.600 --> 00:00:11.600 It's a big deal. 4 00:00:11.600 --> 00:00:12.600 And that is next. 5 00:00:12.600 --> 00:00:32.439 Hey, welcome back to the very fair show. 6 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:34.000 It's great to have you with us today. 7 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.440 And I'm sure hoping you're doing well. 8 00:00:36.440 --> 00:00:38.480 You know, you have a right to your own existence, right? 9 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:42.960 I mean, you're not supposed to be arbitrarily executed, right? 10 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:46.900 You have a right to grow up and get married and have a family if you choose. 11 00:00:46.900 --> 00:00:52.240 You can do what you feel is best for yourself, medically, socially and educationally. 12 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:55.840 Whatever you do with your life, you think you deserve assurance that the government 13 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:59.240 shouldn't hunt you down and take your life away from you, right? 14 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:04.239 I mean, you think that your right to life is so obvious, so fundamental that you don't 15 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:05.400 really think about it much. 16 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:09.120 You don't really have to think about it, right, or defend it, right? 17 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:12.080 Well, you can thank the founders of the United States for that. 18 00:01:12.080 --> 00:01:14.720 It wasn't always the case. 19 00:01:14.720 --> 00:01:17.280 And it still isn't in much of the world. 20 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:22.200 In the Declaration of Independence, the founders leveled their complaint against King George 21 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:23.200 III. 22 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:27.280 And he certainly was an easy target, a way to marshal angst. 23 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:32.840 The king's coercive acts, and yeah, that is actually what they called them, were also 24 00:01:32.840 --> 00:01:33.840 an act of parliament. 25 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:41.080 In fact, the coercive acts of 1774 were almost unanimously supported by the members of the 26 00:01:41.080 --> 00:01:42.080 British Parliament. 27 00:01:42.080 --> 00:01:46.960 And that's what unified the colonies against Great Britain. 28 00:01:46.960 --> 00:01:52.180 As bad as King George III was, he's actually not the worst king in history, not even close. 29 00:01:52.180 --> 00:01:56.120 He was just the current king at the time, and he was the king that inspired their cry 30 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:58.840 for freedom in the new world. 31 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:01.840 The founders were well-versed in political history. 32 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:07.040 They knew many kings were guilty of severe human rights abuses, if not most. 33 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:11.740 And everyone knew about the severe abuses of King Henry VIII. 34 00:02:11.740 --> 00:02:19.000 He lived from 1491 to 1547, and thank goodness he died, because he was really nasty. 35 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.320 For starters, he beheaded two of his six wives. 36 00:02:22.320 --> 00:02:29.320 He was obese, subject to raging mood swings, and he ruled for 36 years. 37 00:02:29.320 --> 00:02:35.720 According to historians, he executed 57,000 of his own people. 38 00:02:35.720 --> 00:02:41.440 He was also paranoid, and that usually comes right along with heavy guilt. 39 00:02:41.440 --> 00:02:43.280 He killed members of the clergy. 40 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:45.080 He killed ordinary citizens. 41 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:46.840 He killed nobles. 42 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:51.680 Anyone who had taken part in a protest was a potential suspect. 43 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:57.280 He killed Queen Anne, one of his wives, since she couldn't deliver him a male heir. 44 00:02:57.600 --> 00:03:04.320 To pull that off, his advisor, Thomas Cromwell, concocted a wild infidelity scheme. 45 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:09.680 She was accused of being unfaithful to five men, including her brother. 46 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:11.520 None of that was true. 47 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:15.000 The reality is that these five men were just enemies of King Henry VIII. 48 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:20.840 So she, his wife who couldn't bear a son, was sentenced to death, and those other five enemies 49 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:24.160 of the king got their heads chopped off at the same time. 50 00:03:24.160 --> 00:03:25.600 Very efficient. 51 00:03:25.600 --> 00:03:28.440 King Henry even killed his closest advisors. 52 00:03:28.440 --> 00:03:34.400 Though deeply trusted by the king, Sir Thomas More didn't want King Henry to break away 53 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:36.000 from the Catholic Church. 54 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.280 Henry had him killed for that opinion. 55 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:44.200 And that dastardly deed was orchestrated by an even more trusted advisor, Thomas Cromwell. 56 00:03:44.200 --> 00:03:45.280 But can you believe it? 57 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:47.760 King Henry also killed Cromwell. 58 00:03:47.760 --> 00:03:53.040 Cromwell was an English lawyer, the great-great-grand-uncle of Oliver Cromwell. 59 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:57.800 He was instrumental in arranging for Henry to get his divorce and marriage to his first 60 00:03:57.800 --> 00:03:58.800 queen Anne. 61 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:01.600 So he was a very trusted guy. 62 00:04:01.600 --> 00:04:06.840 But later when Henry got mad that Anne couldn't crank out a baby boy, he concocted another 63 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:07.840 Anne. 64 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:11.920 He concocted the story that would give Henry cover to kill her. 65 00:04:11.920 --> 00:04:18.279 But by wife of four, Henry was so blazing mad about everything that he blamed Cromwell 66 00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:22.400 for feeling embarrassed that he still didn't have a male heir. 67 00:04:22.400 --> 00:04:29.040 Yep, it was Cromwell's fault that King Henry's fourth wife was bad at making boys. 68 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:36.880 So what did King Henry do to his most trusted advisor, the man who he could share his feelings 69 00:04:36.880 --> 00:04:40.880 with and be protected and covered by this attorney? 70 00:04:40.880 --> 00:04:45.480 So Henry sentenced his most trusted and capable advisor to death without a trial. 71 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:52.800 He was executed on Tower Hill in 1540 and his head was placed on a spike on London Bridge. 72 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:59.640 Now you'd think that'd make people shut up and most did tower in fear, but not Anne. 73 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.920 Askew. King Henry VIII killed her because she threatened his grip on power. 74 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:10.960 Anna Askew fought for women's rights, and she fought for the freedom of religion, 75 00:05:10.960 --> 00:05:20.360 and she spoke out against male oppression, and she fought for the freedom to believe in God through Christ without the church's hierarchy. 76 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:28.480 Horrible crime. She hit a nerve. You didn't need a wicked, fat, arbitrary king to know God. 77 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:33.920 Everyone respected her bold and brave declarations. Henry hated her. 78 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:38.120 She was stretched out on the rack, and there's even a movie about her, and it's really grody. 79 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:46.360 I mean, it was painful. So she was tortured so brutally that her shoulders and her hips were pulled from their sockets. 80 00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:53.440 Her elbows and knees were dislocated. Her screams were heard outside the White Tower. 81 00:05:53.440 --> 00:05:58.920 She never recanted her beliefs. She was burned at the stake with some other heretics. 82 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:06.480 Fortunately, some people that liked her slipped her and some of those other guys some gunpowder so that when the fire burned, 83 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:12.160 she blew up, literally, so that she didn't have to suffer through this long, enduring fire. 84 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:21.400 So if people believed in something different than the king, that's what would happen, especially if they were effective at communicating it. 85 00:06:21.400 --> 00:06:25.320 Henry killed monks for refusing to sign the oath of supremacy. 86 00:06:25.320 --> 00:06:30.760 This was the document that meant you accepted the egomaniac Henry as the head of the English church. 87 00:06:30.760 --> 00:06:35.800 They were tortured and left to starve to death in cells. Others were burned. 88 00:06:35.800 --> 00:06:45.600 King Henry's rage was inflamed further as these monks remained calm and they wouldn't give King Henry the allegiance that he demanded. 89 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:53.960 They believed that only God deserved worship. So Henry elevated the torture, inventing even more cruel and unusual punishments. 90 00:06:53.960 --> 00:07:05.240 For example, at the London Charterhouse, which today exists as Charterhouse Square, the monks were disemboweled while they were still alive. 91 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:09.040 After they died, they were beheaded and then they were quartered. 92 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:12.960 In other words, their body was hacked into four pieces. 93 00:07:12.960 --> 00:07:17.440 Those executions took place from 1535 to 1537. 94 00:07:17.440 --> 00:07:22.320 And the monks never recanted. So King Henry just killed people for disagreeing with him. 95 00:07:22.320 --> 00:07:25.120 He killed people for not giving him the tribute he wanted. 96 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:31.160 He killed people for thinking for themselves and saying what they thought out loud. 97 00:07:31.160 --> 00:07:37.080 And he was the government. He literally and figuratively controlled the power of the sword. 98 00:07:37.080 --> 00:07:45.240 And that's what can happen when the government doesn't hard code and inherit right to life into its system. 99 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:49.440 King Henry VIII simply didn't believe that you had that right. 100 00:07:49.440 --> 00:07:55.240 Get in his way, make him mad, and you become one of his mass executions. 101 00:07:55.240 --> 00:08:00.640 So when the founders would think about the right to life, it was no small thing. 102 00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:03.520 It had deep context. 103 00:08:03.520 --> 00:08:09.040 He wasn't the only king that abused people's power, but he was one of them. 104 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:12.440 And he really reveals what was in the minds of the founder. 105 00:08:12.440 --> 00:08:20.920 It would seem basic and intuitive to us, but that's because the founders explicitly declared the right to life. 106 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:27.280 So over the course of history and even now in many countries, governments do not act like nor do they believe. 107 00:08:27.280 --> 00:08:31.920 And the laws that they have don't really allow for this fundamental right to life. 108 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:36.280 For example, Syria tortures with brutality. 109 00:08:36.280 --> 00:08:38.760 They execute their citizens who want freedom. 110 00:08:38.760 --> 00:08:45.200 Africa lists a dozen countries like Cameroon and Somalia, where government kills its citizens. 111 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:56.080 China, China's abuses against whole population groups include forced harvesting of organs while the people are still alive. 112 00:08:56.080 --> 00:09:04.960 So whether you're looking at Democracy Index, which is put together by the United Kingdom's publishers of The Economist or the Freedom in the World Study, 113 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:15.160 which is produced by Freedom House, over half of the world's citizens today do not have an explicitly guaranteed right to life. 114 00:09:15.160 --> 00:09:22.800 The recent invasion by Russia and Ukraine for no good reason at all exposes what's almost always happening in the world. 115 00:09:22.800 --> 00:09:26.640 In all these trouble spots, these violations are happening all the time. 116 00:09:26.640 --> 00:09:28.600 This violates right now. 117 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:39.480 The current insertion of Russia into Ukraine just grabs the media's attention because the aggressor possesses nuclear weapons and the victim is in Europe. 118 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:43.200 At bottom, Russia doesn't respect the right to life. 119 00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:51.880 But this is also now true in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, China, Iran, North Korea, Burundi and Burma, just to name a few. 120 00:09:51.880 --> 00:09:59.640 And for over 100 countries, the right to life is not a pillar of freedom that their citizens can count on, rely on. 121 00:09:59.640 --> 00:10:00.040 But every. 122 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.920 One should be able to rely on, count upon the right to life. 123 00:10:04.920 --> 00:10:07.200 I mean, without it, you live in a constant state 124 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:09.920 of fear and oppression. 125 00:10:09.920 --> 00:10:12.120 Our country was really set up in a unique way. 126 00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:15.200 Its foundation is based on an explicit belief 127 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:18.960 that the government serve its citizens, not rule over them. 128 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:21.280 So in the previous four episodes of The Very Fair Show, 129 00:10:21.280 --> 00:10:23.280 I described this foundation, and I call them 130 00:10:23.280 --> 00:10:25.760 your seven citizen mandates. 131 00:10:25.760 --> 00:10:27.800 The Constitution was a social contract 132 00:10:27.800 --> 00:10:31.040 that was based on the explicit or implicit understanding 133 00:10:31.040 --> 00:10:32.360 of these mandates. 134 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:35.480 Government shall be limited, obey its own laws, 135 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:39.320 apply all laws equally, protect the rights of the individual, 136 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:42.280 support economic freedom, be governed 137 00:10:42.280 --> 00:10:47.280 under the consent of the people, and honor freedom rights. 138 00:10:47.280 --> 00:10:48.960 So at the end of the day, the mandates 139 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:50.280 reveal that government's supposed 140 00:10:50.280 --> 00:10:52.120 to operate with some humility. 141 00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:55.360 With the foundation putting government in its proper place, 142 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:59.000 the three pillars of freedom can stand tall. 143 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:01.880 And the right to life, the right to your own existence, 144 00:11:01.880 --> 00:11:04.760 is the very first pillar of freedom. 145 00:11:04.760 --> 00:11:07.120 The founders believed that every human is special, 146 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:10.920 and that government should protect all innocent life. 147 00:11:10.920 --> 00:11:13.920 In fact, the primary reason for a strong national defense 148 00:11:13.920 --> 00:11:17.200 rests on the right to life. 149 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:20.960 By protecting its citizens from the devastation of war, 150 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:23.440 for example, and just witness what 151 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:25.800 happens when a government's not able to protect 152 00:11:25.800 --> 00:11:27.680 its citizens in war zones. 153 00:11:27.680 --> 00:11:33.440 Or when a city foolishly defunds the police, 154 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:36.320 innocent people lose their life. 155 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:39.160 So this wasn't some superficial belief that just sounded good. 156 00:11:39.160 --> 00:11:43.280 The founders believed that human life was inspired by God. 157 00:11:43.280 --> 00:11:45.760 Now, not all the founders were practicing Christians, 158 00:11:45.760 --> 00:11:49.600 but they all believed in natural rights and natural law. 159 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:51.920 They all believed that humans are special. 160 00:11:51.920 --> 00:11:55.560 They are created, and they're created with those rights. 161 00:11:55.560 --> 00:11:57.040 So how do we know this? 162 00:11:57.040 --> 00:11:59.160 Well, they all have writings, and they all 163 00:11:59.160 --> 00:12:02.080 have records of speeches that they made in their careers. 164 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:05.480 And of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, 165 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:08.600 they all identified themselves as Christians. 166 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:11.440 And all but one were Protestants. 167 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.080 Now, they might not all practice their Christian faith 168 00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:15.960 in the same way you might think of it today, 169 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:18.600 but they all identified themselves that way. 170 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:21.560 Four were either present or former ministers, 171 00:12:21.560 --> 00:12:23.960 and a number of the signers were the sons of clergy. 172 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:26.760 At least half of them had studied divinity 173 00:12:26.760 --> 00:12:29.000 at the various universities they attended. 174 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:34.240 32 of the 56 signers, 57%, were Episcopalians. 175 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:37.560 13 were Congregationalists, 12 were Presbyterians, 176 00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:39.880 two were Quakers, and two were Unitarians. 177 00:12:39.880 --> 00:12:42.320 And one was Roman Catholic. 178 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:49.040 All but two believed that every human is carefully planned, 179 00:12:49.040 --> 00:12:54.040 special creation event by a caring God. 180 00:12:54.040 --> 00:12:58.360 And all of them believed that every person has a right 181 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:02.920 to his or her own life, and that it cannot be predetermined 182 00:13:02.920 --> 00:13:04.800 by the requirements of a bureaucracy 183 00:13:04.800 --> 00:13:07.840 or the actions of a legislator or a jurist. 184 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:10.680 The founders understood power-hungry tyrants, 185 00:13:10.680 --> 00:13:13.720 and they insisted that government has to be restrained, 186 00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:16.720 and that it can never be so powerful that it can never 187 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:20.320 again execute innocent life. 188 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:23.880 At least that was the intent of the Declaration. 189 00:13:23.880 --> 00:13:27.200 So the problem in their observation was simple. 190 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:30.520 Too much power in the hands of a king like Henry, 191 00:13:30.520 --> 00:13:32.560 or even someone like Oliver Cromwell, 192 00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:36.760 who fought an autocratic king, too much power was a bad thing. 193 00:13:36.760 --> 00:13:40.880 All of them are guilty of practicing disregard for life. 194 00:13:40.880 --> 00:13:43.240 And to the founders, this arbitrary behavior 195 00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:45.560 is so well-known, it must be checked. 196 00:13:45.600 --> 00:13:47.760 So when the Declaration of Independence 197 00:13:47.760 --> 00:13:49.880 includes the philosophical foundation 198 00:13:49.880 --> 00:13:52.000 for how the new country will be governed, 199 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.080 it has deep meaning. 200 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:56.840 Most of them had a personal family story 201 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:58.840 where the right to life was threatened 202 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:01.600 in the proximity of their recent ancestry. 203 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:03.280 And we're gonna touch on one of those next week. 204 00:14:03.280 --> 00:14:05.200 It's George Washington's fam. 205 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:07.840 So what's the right to life? 206 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:10.480 Well, technically, the right to life is the belief 207 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:14.000 that all innocent humans have the right to live, 208 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.160 and in particular, should not be killed 209 00:14:16.160 --> 00:14:17.960 by any government entity. 210 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:20.200 And along with that, you've got the right 211 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:22.600 to make your own decisions about your health. 212 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:25.600 You have the right to make your own social decisions. 213 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:27.760 You have the right to you. 214 00:14:28.680 --> 00:14:30.480 The Declaration of Independence calls it 215 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:34.200 an unalienable right, a right where there is no dispute, 216 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:36.360 universal, fundamental. 217 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:38.920 They are natural rights. 218 00:14:38.920 --> 00:14:41.200 Natural rights are not dependent on the laws, 219 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:44.120 the customs, or the culture of any place on the planet. 220 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:47.480 They cannot be repealed by human laws. 221 00:14:47.480 --> 00:14:49.200 They cannot be reversed. 222 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:51.240 And when the Declaration said 223 00:14:51.240 --> 00:14:55.080 that these three freedom rights were based on nature 224 00:14:55.080 --> 00:14:56.440 and nature's God, 225 00:14:56.440 --> 00:14:59.800 they are meant to be above any government's reach. 226 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:07.760 that no one, no government can ever violate them. So in the same way that the law of gravity is true, 227 00:15:07.760 --> 00:15:13.920 natural rights are true. And natural law simply identifies the legal parameters of natural rights. 228 00:15:14.560 --> 00:15:20.960 That's what they mean when they say that these truths are self-evident. In fact, the first 229 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:26.400 draft of the Declaration contemplated that this term sacred instead, you know, these truths are 230 00:15:26.400 --> 00:15:32.800 sacred, that these truths really have some holy background to them. But that sounded too religious 231 00:15:32.800 --> 00:15:36.560 and nobody wanted to state religion. And the majority of Episcopalian Anglicans, 232 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:42.080 derivative of the Church of England, did not want to diminish the minority Unitarians. 233 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:47.760 So they changed the term from sacred to self-evident, shifting the tone to an explicit 234 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:55.840 reliance on natural law. What's self-evident? What's so obvious? What's based on natural law? 235 00:15:56.400 --> 00:16:04.320 Truth. These truths are self-evident. The right to life is an absolute truth. A hundred percent of 236 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:13.040 the founders agreed, and anyone with an honest brain can deduce the logic, life is self-evident. 237 00:16:13.040 --> 00:16:18.320 It should be a right. And when they laid out these ideas, they explicitly did so in the context 238 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:26.080 that all men are created equal. And what that meant is that they are endowed by their creator 239 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:34.640 with these rights, bequeathed, given. They chose the word creator versus God. It was a tamed down, 240 00:16:34.640 --> 00:16:41.200 toned down version of God with the same argument that they had replaced sacred with self-evident. 241 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:46.240 This gave comfort to those with non-sectarian beliefs. They could all rally behind the notion 242 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:53.600 that all people are special since we're created by the same creator. This establishes another 243 00:16:53.600 --> 00:17:00.960 absolute truth. We all have equal value. Each person has equal value regardless of where they 244 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:06.480 were born or what family they were born into, regardless of color. You still have as much value 245 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:13.040 as the next guy. And that's why it was such a blow, a deep anguishing blow to John Adams, 246 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:20.079 because he was coerced to relent on the slavery issue. He wanted the slavery issue debunked 247 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:24.800 in the Declaration of Independence. And as described in the previous episode, 248 00:17:24.800 --> 00:17:29.360 and we'll go into more detail in the next episode, he lost that argument to the South. 249 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:35.440 The Judeo-Christian belief among the founders also meant that we are special among the animals, 250 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:42.960 that we could find purpose and meaning in life with the capacity to think, believe, trust, hope, 251 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:49.360 produce, and operate autonomous from our appetites and our instincts. The right to life 252 00:17:49.360 --> 00:17:56.080 is a moral certainty. It's absolute. Natural law was described by Roman philosophers from 253 00:17:56.080 --> 00:18:02.320 Cicero to Bible authors like the Apostle Paul, to Catholic philosophers like Thomas Aquinas, 254 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:08.560 or Protestant thinkers like Calvin and Luther. And it led to this great challenge against the 255 00:18:08.560 --> 00:18:15.120 divine right of kings. It really led to freedom. Every one of the founders believed that there is 256 00:18:15.120 --> 00:18:20.320 a creator. They might've described it in different ways. They may have allowed for different 257 00:18:20.320 --> 00:18:25.200 relationship levels with the creator, different involvements of the creator being personally 258 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:30.640 involved. Some of them believe the creator more in the deistic term. And they diverged on these 259 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:36.560 doctrinal issues, but they all agreed that the Genesis account of the creation of humans was 260 00:18:36.560 --> 00:18:41.040 essentially true. And here's what I mean by essentially true. In this creation account, 261 00:18:41.040 --> 00:18:44.880 there are those that teach that all of those creation accounts are literal and some believe 262 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:49.440 that they are allegorical, but that the essence of the creation account is true. There are those 263 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:55.120 that believe that each creation day is an epic up to billions of years each, which would allow for a 264 00:18:55.120 --> 00:19:00.400 lot of science to fit neatly in them. And there's those that believe that each creation day was 24 265 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:05.360 hours from some perspective in space. And those that believe that it was 24 literal hours from 266 00:19:05.360 --> 00:19:11.280 the perspective of earth, but they all agreed on two things. First, all the creation events were to 267 00:19:11.280 --> 00:19:17.360 prepare life for humans. Those creation events happened by the voice of God. Those are really 268 00:19:17.360 --> 00:19:25.600 cool creation events. Let there be, and it was, he spoke and it was. The second is that the creation 269 00:19:25.600 --> 00:19:32.720 event of mankind was different and special from getting the universe and the world habitable. 270 00:19:33.520 --> 00:19:42.480 This was involving forming in Genesis 1 26, the whole Trinity is involved. Then God said, let us 271 00:19:43.600 --> 00:19:51.840 make or form man in our image after our likeness. And the next verse captures the execution of the 272 00:19:51.840 --> 00:19:58.400 plan to make humans. It says, so God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God, 273 00:19:58.400 --> 00:19:59.440 he created them. 274 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:06.000 male and female, he created them. 275 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:10.160 People are special, they all have equal value. 276 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:14.920 Way back before there was any oppression to disrupt the plan, 277 00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:17.400 men and women had equal value. 278 00:20:17.400 --> 00:20:20.720 To the founders, this absolute was as certain as 279 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:23.880 Newton's first law that an object will not change 280 00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:27.040 its motion unless some other outside force acts upon it. 281 00:20:27.320 --> 00:20:31.360 You absolutely are born with special rights, equal rights, 282 00:20:31.360 --> 00:20:33.400 and the right to life is based on the belief 283 00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:38.240 that you are created in the image of God, and it's obvious. 284 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:40.360 Humans have the capacity to think, 285 00:20:40.360 --> 00:20:43.400 organize, design, create, and produce. 286 00:20:43.400 --> 00:20:46.840 It means that humans can develop and become better. 287 00:20:46.840 --> 00:20:49.360 A dolphin is an amazing animal, 288 00:20:49.360 --> 00:20:51.400 but it doesn't get professional development 289 00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:52.720 and improve its skills, 290 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:55.160 and it doesn't design and build skyscrapers. 291 00:20:56.080 --> 00:21:00.280 The image of God meant that people could uniquely use words 292 00:21:00.280 --> 00:21:02.960 with power to create. 293 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:06.160 Dolphins can use communications to kill a shark, 294 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:09.560 but people can speak forth and write things down, 295 00:21:09.560 --> 00:21:13.600 and engineers from all over the world can send CAD files, 296 00:21:13.600 --> 00:21:16.560 these computer files, to various construction teams 297 00:21:16.560 --> 00:21:17.920 in other parts of the world, 298 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:21.760 and through massive coordination and planning, 299 00:21:21.760 --> 00:21:25.640 take these abstract concepts and make them a reality. 300 00:21:25.640 --> 00:21:29.040 For example, that's how the tallest skyscraper 301 00:21:29.040 --> 00:21:31.600 in Dubai was built, 302 00:21:31.600 --> 00:21:33.320 but everyone knew that the right to life 303 00:21:33.320 --> 00:21:36.080 was a foundational proof of natural law. 304 00:21:36.080 --> 00:21:37.400 People are special. 305 00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:40.400 It's a foundational concept of Christians and Jews, 306 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:41.760 and for every deist, 307 00:21:41.760 --> 00:21:45.280 it was understood through the lens of natural rights. 308 00:21:45.280 --> 00:21:48.320 So in fact, all these human rights come from natural rights. 309 00:21:48.320 --> 00:21:51.360 Those opposed to any sense of moral absolutes 310 00:21:51.360 --> 00:21:54.520 are against natural rights because of its certainty 311 00:21:54.520 --> 00:21:59.960 and because they elevate humans as special on the earth, 312 00:21:59.960 --> 00:22:02.960 ones who can respond in worship, 313 00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:04.840 and after the U.S. became a country, 314 00:22:04.840 --> 00:22:06.120 many scholars from Germany 315 00:22:06.120 --> 00:22:08.040 attempted to dethrone the U.S. leadership 316 00:22:08.040 --> 00:22:10.760 and freedom principles by a concerted effort 317 00:22:10.760 --> 00:22:13.760 of inserting a challenge to natural rights, 318 00:22:13.760 --> 00:22:17.080 and out of that challenge to natural rights, 319 00:22:17.080 --> 00:22:20.160 that anti-God, anti-absolute, 320 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:24.120 anti-belief in human specialness thinking, 321 00:22:24.120 --> 00:22:28.240 the horrors of World War II were justified and happened. 322 00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:31.280 I'm going to prove that out in a coming episode. 323 00:22:31.280 --> 00:22:33.840 So after the horrors of World War II, 324 00:22:33.840 --> 00:22:37.720 the United Nations agreed upon a declaration of human rights. 325 00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:41.800 Article 1 of the Declaration of Human Rights 326 00:22:41.800 --> 00:22:46.800 from the United Nations is that all humans are born free. 327 00:22:47.320 --> 00:22:50.600 And equal in dignity and rights. 328 00:22:50.600 --> 00:22:54.760 They are endowed with reason and conscience. 329 00:22:54.760 --> 00:22:57.280 Now, how about them apples? 330 00:22:57.280 --> 00:23:00.600 You're talking about the United Nations, 331 00:23:00.600 --> 00:23:03.560 and you've got a lot of non-Christian actors 332 00:23:03.560 --> 00:23:05.040 joining in the chorus. 333 00:23:05.040 --> 00:23:06.760 This is in 1948. 334 00:23:06.760 --> 00:23:08.200 These rights are endowed. 335 00:23:08.200 --> 00:23:11.280 They're somehow granted, bequeathed from the outside, 336 00:23:11.280 --> 00:23:12.600 not a government. 337 00:23:12.600 --> 00:23:15.120 They're bestowed on you upon your birth. 338 00:23:15.120 --> 00:23:18.120 They're built in by birth. 339 00:23:18.120 --> 00:23:21.240 Article 2, it establishes that all the rights and freedoms 340 00:23:21.240 --> 00:23:23.440 are available to everyone, regardless of race, color, 341 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:25.760 sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, 342 00:23:25.760 --> 00:23:30.120 national or social origin, property, birth or other status. 343 00:23:30.120 --> 00:23:33.040 So the UN catches up with the Declaration of Independence 344 00:23:33.040 --> 00:23:36.680 172 years later, and says these rights are for everyone, 345 00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:40.080 since everyone is created with equal value. 346 00:23:40.080 --> 00:23:43.160 Article 3, everyone has the right to life, 347 00:23:43.160 --> 00:23:45.360 liberty and the security of person. 348 00:23:45.360 --> 00:23:49.160 So the UN is fresh off of the horrors of World War II, 349 00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:52.000 and it admits that the founders of the United States 350 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:54.120 had it right all along. 351 00:23:54.120 --> 00:23:56.880 Natural rights are beyond the authority of any government 352 00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:59.760 or any international body to dismiss. 353 00:23:59.760 --> 00:24:04.560 So what does the right to life include? 354 00:24:04.560 --> 00:24:08.360 Well, it certainly includes all those lives in the womb. 355 00:24:08.360 --> 00:24:12.520 The author of Psalm 139 says that God forms you 356 00:24:12.520 --> 00:24:16.960 in your inward parts and wove you in your mother's womb. 357 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:19.360 The term right to life predates the abortion issue 358 00:24:19.360 --> 00:24:20.920 by two centuries. 359 00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:24.520 But if the government is to protect any life, 360 00:24:24.520 --> 00:24:26.800 it should protect the lives of the innocent 361 00:24:26.800 --> 00:24:28.400 and the vulnerable. 362 00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:31.680 As the abortion issue was gaining steam around the world, 363 00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:36.560 the Pope on October 29th, 1951, addressed some midwives 364 00:24:36.560 --> 00:24:39.680 and said the following, every human being, 365 00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:41.800 even the child in the womb has the right to life 366 00:24:41.800 --> 00:24:43.760 directly from God and not from his parents, 367 00:24:43.760 --> 00:24:46.240 not from any society or human authority. 368 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:49.640 Therefore, there is no man, no society, no human authority, 369 00:24:49.640 --> 00:24:53.160 no science, no indication at all, whether it be medical, 370 00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:55.000 eugenic, social, economic, or moral, 371 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:58.880 that may offer or give a valid judicial title 372 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:00.920 for a direct, deliberate life. 373 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:03.480 deliberate disposal of an innocent life. 374 00:25:03.480 --> 00:25:04.320 And you know what? 375 00:25:04.320 --> 00:25:05.800 The Pope had it right. 376 00:25:05.800 --> 00:25:07.640 If the government should do anything, 377 00:25:07.640 --> 00:25:10.280 it should protect innocent life. 378 00:25:10.280 --> 00:25:12.680 In the Torah, we find that murder is forbidden 379 00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:15.640 and that killing is only allowed in self-defense, 380 00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:18.560 capital punishment, or justified war. 381 00:25:18.560 --> 00:25:21.520 The right to life does not preclude capital punishment. 382 00:25:21.520 --> 00:25:23.840 There are those who murder and their lives 383 00:25:23.840 --> 00:25:26.920 can be taken swiftly without torture by government 384 00:25:26.920 --> 00:25:30.080 as a just punishment that fits the crime. 385 00:25:30.080 --> 00:25:32.800 The right to life does not preclude just war. 386 00:25:32.800 --> 00:25:35.060 There are heinous crimes that power-hungry, 387 00:25:35.060 --> 00:25:36.560 evil governments will carry out 388 00:25:36.560 --> 00:25:39.080 upon large swaths of people. 389 00:25:39.080 --> 00:25:42.480 If they're not stopped, they'll do big time harm. 390 00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:45.220 It was moral to stop Hitler. 391 00:25:45.220 --> 00:25:48.880 It was wrong to wait until millions of Jews were executed 392 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:50.760 before we stopped Hitler. 393 00:25:50.760 --> 00:25:54.120 The US was initially an isolationist in World War II, 394 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:57.800 just letting Hitler and the other tyrants have their way. 395 00:25:57.800 --> 00:26:01.080 But finally, in 1942, our government stepped up. 396 00:26:01.080 --> 00:26:03.240 In fact, there's a poster that was developed 397 00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:04.880 by the Office of War Management. 398 00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:06.280 It was widely distributed. 399 00:26:06.280 --> 00:26:09.960 And here's what it said, July 4th, 1776. 400 00:26:09.960 --> 00:26:12.000 When our declaration was signed, 401 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:17.000 loyal Americans were of one mind to protect life, 402 00:26:17.080 --> 00:26:19.400 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 403 00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:23.600 166 years later, 1942, when this poster comes out, 404 00:26:23.600 --> 00:26:25.000 we are of one mind. 405 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:28.440 Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito 406 00:26:28.440 --> 00:26:30.600 shall never take from us the freedom 407 00:26:30.600 --> 00:26:33.080 for which our forefathers sacrificed their lives 408 00:26:33.080 --> 00:26:34.120 and fortunes. 409 00:26:34.120 --> 00:26:36.760 So Hitler out of Germany, Mussolini out of Italy, 410 00:26:36.760 --> 00:26:40.520 and Hirohito out of Japan were all horrible dictators, 411 00:26:40.520 --> 00:26:43.560 slaughtering people with no regard for life. 412 00:26:43.560 --> 00:26:47.400 So stopping them was just, the war was just. 413 00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:50.560 In America, before the present day, 414 00:26:50.560 --> 00:26:53.320 woke, nonsense, idiocy, 415 00:26:53.320 --> 00:26:56.320 and before the revisionist activists 416 00:26:56.320 --> 00:26:59.400 changed what actually happened in history and revised it, 417 00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:01.600 we taught our eighth grade civic students 418 00:27:01.600 --> 00:27:04.320 that the preamble in the Declaration of Independence 419 00:27:04.320 --> 00:27:05.760 was true. 420 00:27:05.760 --> 00:27:08.120 You had a right to life. 421 00:27:08.120 --> 00:27:09.680 And that what it was doing, 422 00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:10.840 the Declaration of Independence, 423 00:27:10.840 --> 00:27:15.840 was merely restating already proven absolute truth. 424 00:27:16.560 --> 00:27:17.640 You don't have to believe in God 425 00:27:17.640 --> 00:27:19.880 to believe that you have a right to life. 426 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:21.600 All people are created equal. 427 00:27:21.600 --> 00:27:25.240 They're all given this indisputable right to life. 428 00:27:25.240 --> 00:27:26.920 Now, certainly not every founder 429 00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:29.280 who identified themselves as a Christian 430 00:27:29.280 --> 00:27:31.480 practiced the Christian faith. 431 00:27:31.480 --> 00:27:33.280 But as it pertains to life, 432 00:27:33.280 --> 00:27:35.480 the Judeo-Christian idea is that life 433 00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:38.240 should be celebrated for three reasons. 434 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:40.200 We're created for a purpose, 435 00:27:40.200 --> 00:27:43.160 we're created at a specific time. 436 00:27:43.160 --> 00:27:44.760 It's not accidental. 437 00:27:44.760 --> 00:27:48.400 And we're created to give glory to God. 438 00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:50.920 But even if you don't believe those things 439 00:27:50.920 --> 00:27:52.880 that make life full, 440 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:55.400 it's known that humans possess the capacity 441 00:27:55.400 --> 00:27:58.240 for reason, morality, language, personality, 442 00:27:58.240 --> 00:28:00.200 and purpose uniquely. 443 00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:03.680 We possess the capacity to experience and understand 444 00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:05.840 love, truth, and beauty. 445 00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:10.120 That we are made by God in the image of God 446 00:28:10.120 --> 00:28:13.080 is what gives all men and women deep value. 447 00:28:13.080 --> 00:28:15.400 The early church leader, James, 448 00:28:15.400 --> 00:28:17.920 says that we shouldn't curse one another 449 00:28:18.440 --> 00:28:21.480 because that person like you 450 00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:24.640 is equally made in God's likeness. 451 00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:28.840 So those who bear God's image should not be disrespected. 452 00:28:28.840 --> 00:28:33.840 Cultures that reject the idea that mankind is special 453 00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:37.000 have no problem abusing other human beings. 454 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:39.200 And there's a bunch of cultures 455 00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:43.280 that have no problem abusing other human beings. 456 00:28:43.280 --> 00:28:44.920 The founders wanted to set the stage 457 00:28:44.920 --> 00:28:47.720 for each individual citizen to enjoy a deep 458 00:28:48.520 --> 00:28:49.440 and confident assurance 459 00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:52.720 that government would protect every citizen's right to life. 460 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:53.920 You could marry whom you choose. 461 00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:56.120 You could build a family in peace. 462 00:28:56.120 --> 00:28:57.640 You could work where you want it. 463 00:28:57.640 --> 00:29:02.080 You could go to the medical doctor you wanted to go to. 464 00:29:02.080 --> 00:29:03.960 You could take care of your own life 465 00:29:03.960 --> 00:29:06.960 the way that you felt is best for your life. 466 00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:09.600 You could worship God however you pleased. 467 00:29:09.600 --> 00:29:12.600 And the government would not interfere. 468 00:29:12.600 --> 00:29:15.520 The right to life is a pillar. 469 00:29:15.520 --> 00:29:18.560 And it's the first pillar of freedom. 470 00:29:18.560 --> 00:29:21.200 It's the first freedom principle. 471 00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:23.160 And from it, there are dozens 472 00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:26.120 of derivative freedom principles. 473 00:29:26.120 --> 00:29:27.200 It's a right. 474 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:30.120 It's given to us by God, not the government. 475 00:29:30.120 --> 00:29:33.240 And no government should take it away. 476 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:35.880 God bless you to your freedom. 477 00:29:35.880 --> 00:29:38.120 Hi, I'm David Farah. 478 00:29:38.120 --> 00:29:40.240 Thank you for listening to my dad's podcast, 479 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:42.800 The Barry Farah Show, Culture Shift. 480 00:29:42.800 --> 00:29:46.360 Click subscribe now to be sure you don't miss an episode. 481 00:29:46.360 --> 00:29:49.040 Share this podcast with your friends on social media 482 00:29:49.040 --> 00:29:52.400 and give The Barry Farah Show your five-star rating. 483 00:29:52.400 --> 00:29:53.520 See you next time.