John Locke strongly believed that rights are natural. In his foundational work, “Two Treatises of Government” (1689), he argued that every individual is born with inherent, inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property. Jefferson based the Declaration of Independence on Locke’s revolutionary idea, as did America’s Bill of Rights and Constitution.
Rights are not given to us by anyone. Rights cannot be granted — only upheld or violated. You don’t have to prove the existence of God or persuade someone of a particular faith in order to secure rights. Rights are inalienable. Rights exist with or without a God.
Human beings do not answer to any government. Government operates to uphold rights. Period. Government has no other legitimacy. Violent criminals and thieves must answer to government only because criminals violate rights. Once a government starts to violate rights by stealing, looting, murdering or even improperly regulating — that government loses its legitimacy.
We are not the politicians’ serfs or slaves. They answer to us.