Letters to Editor
U.S. athiests may have no rights at all
By RANDY VAN ZWOL
Mar 25, 2008, 04:38

Editor:
I was reading the American Declaration of Independence and came across an intriguing passage. After a preamble about dissolving political unions, it goes on to say “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.”
It seems these rights are not granted at birth, nor do they appear to be a de facto part of American citizenship. According to this document, the only reason a person has unalienable rights is because their creator gave those rights to that person. (It might be argued that the XIV amendment of The Constitution prevents the government from infringing on those rights, but the creator of those rights however, remains the same.)
Does this mean atheist Americans do not have these rights? If they do, who gave them those rights? The only rights-granter in this document is “their Creator.” Can you claim to have been given something from a source you insist doesn’t exist?
Doesn’t it seem odd then that atheist Americans (who might not have a legitimate claim to any rights) are trying to take away the unalienable rights of Americans who do believe in the Creator of those rights, and who would presumably thereby actually have a legitimate claim to those rights?
So this is politics.
RANDY VAN ZWOL
Lethbridge

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