Greetings!
I would like to start a discussion that is important for us Conservatives to have because the Marxists don't want to have this discussion. If there is participation in this discussion and it progresses, you'll see why the Marxists don't want to talk about what is means to be human. So let me start the discussion with a question:
What distinguishes humans from all other living entities?
HINT: It's not an exterior trait or characteristic - like skin color.
Everybody, throw in your two cents - What do you think distinguishes humans from all other life?
Comments
Jeremy - Very thoughtful response that is well documented. Allow me to respond. You said:
"We have natural rights that do not require anything of another person and therefore do not require a governance structure to avoid offense. The law is there to mitigate the issues of excesses in our claim on priveleges; these are the interactions where us enjoying something requires something of someone else."
I have two questions: 1)What are those rights we have? We have to know what they are so we can identify them when someone tries to take them from us; 2) When you say "excesses in our claim on 'priveleges' do you mean going beyond our "rights"?
"Our system of government was established for self governance, . . . and the right to worship and speak freely and to choose with whom and where and when we will assemble. On these issues the government has no business to exert any control. On other issues, like use of public water, roads, etc. I do not enjoy these priveleges without imposing on someone else, therefore laws are appropriate to manage the relationships." What rules should government use to mediate disputes? Sounds as if what you are saying is paving the way for corruption? What if you and I have a dispute and I give to those who administer (government) our dispute or relationship so they will the outcome in my favor?
"Conservativism then is somewhat an expansion of the expression by John Adams, that this system of government is wholly unsuitable for an immoral and unreligious society. By that he meant, that we need a relationship with God first to be kept true which ensures strong conscience and righteous participation in society. Second, the system of government is a limited one, in which a moral and right acting people can self govern and come to agreements as laws to describe the interactions amongst us." But that assumes everyone if God-fearing and they are not, at least not everyone. Then what do we do?
Getting back to the original question, what makes humand different from all other living things?
Great questions. I edited what I wrote to provide so.e clarification, but I will revise it again later today.
I don't assume that anyone is god-fearing, I know most are not. But satan is God fearing, yet defiant. It is not a fear of God that brings about right action, it is obedience, love of God that does.
From Isaiah 14 we see God discussing Lucifer's fall:
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
In this passage we see that Satan became the fallen angel because he, the greatest of the angels, beautiful, powerful, musical, said in his heart that he would rise above God. When did this event take place? it seems that this certainly took place before Eve was tempted with the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but I'm not aware that the bible is actually explicit about the timing of this event. It seems reasonable that this might have occurred before the six days of creation, that is what i suspect.
If Satan was present on the earth during the six days of creation, the sixth day must have been agonizing.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Here, the son of the morning was looking upon God watching this creation unfold. Having been a celestial being, can you imagine Lucifer's appreciation for the beauty of the Universe? Things we gaze upon from afar through the Huble telescope, amazing wonder. Then God, on this unimportant planet tucked away into an armpit on an obscure galaxy starts playing with the least significant and impressive aspect of the creation ... dirt. And from this dirt he fashions a man bearing his image and likeness, breathing life into this creature. In that instant, i am convinced Satan knew his judgement was wrapped up in that man and sought to destroy him.
Marxism, when you break it down, is a political system of the satanic religion referred to as Humanism. This religion teaches that GOD cannot solve your problems, the existential threat, for there is no god. It teaches that there are men among us that are wise, super-duper well educated, and that these should be called together to solve our problems; global warming, pandemics created by man, clean water, safe forests! RIGHT?!? who among these elite has the competence and virtue to bring about harmony?
Fundamental to our understanding of our values, is the framework within which they exist. If there is no God in the equation, then there is no righteous law to offend, no conscience to convict us of the violation, and no obligation to make propitiation, we are atoms mysteriously defying the second law of thermodynamics (entropy) and nothing more, and who really cares how this mysterious existence is possible? The reality is we exist in a cosmic clash between God and Lucifer, and we already know God wins. This is where the meaning of being human becomes evident, for it is through mankind that God judges his enemy. Much more though, as God exists in unaproachable light, and as 1 John 4:12 says, no one has seen God. We then in His image and after his likeness, are to be an expression of God, filled with Him, and prepared as the Bride of Christ Jesus.
The law, what is it? Paul describes it as a child conductor. The law of man is the set of rules we subject ourselves to in order to manage our interactions. Corruption, sin, is the unavoidable human condition that requires the law. If sin had not entered humanity through the disobedient act, partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then there would be no need for the law. The sinful act resulted in independence from God, from a limited perspective, where we had knowledge that allowed us to act independently where prior to that Adam was walking in the garden with God in continuous communion with him. Our "fall" was relational, we lost continuous communion with the creator.
The sinful element wars within us, think of the deviant things. There is no question that the deviant things lead us further from God and blight our conscience making us numb to God's preceps and empowering and emboldened us to rationalize why our deviance is ok. Hence, all mankind, fallen man, is son of the serpent, the Great deceiver. This sinful nature compels us into sinful acts that often create an offense against our neighbors, creating the need for laws
At this point is useful to differentiate between "right" and privilege". I have a simple test, if you think a thing is a right, like healthcare, free education, or free cell phones, to determine if it is a right,, answer whether exercise of that "right" in any way imposes on someone else. If it does, then we are not talking about a right, but a privilege. Exercise of a right does not encumbered others. We have natural rights that do not require anything of another person and therefore do not require a governance structure to avoid offense. The law is there to mitigate the issues of excesses in our claim on priveleges; for instance, I might enjoy the privilege of diverting water from a stream into my cropland, if I take all of the water leaving no e for my neighbor, I have exceeded my privilege, and it is for these circumstances that we have laws.
Our system of government was established for self governance, i.e. identify what we have natural right to excercise, like what i PUT IN MY BODY, self defense (like the little girl that raised her hand against sniffy-Joe this weekend), and the right to worship and speak freely and to choose with whom and where and when we will assemble. On these issues the government has no business to exert any control. On other issues, like use of public water, roads, etc. I do not enjoy these priveleges without imposing on someone else, therefore laws are appropriate to manage the relationships.
Conservativism then is somewhat an expansion of the expression by John Adams, that this system of government is wholly unsuitable for an immoral and unreligious society. By that he meant, that we need a relationship with God first to be kept true which ensures strong conscience and righteous participation in society. Second, the system of government is a limited one, in which a moral and right acting people can self govern and come to agreements as laws to describe the interactions amongst us.
I will end this by proposing that the number of laws a nation has is inversely proportional to the measure of the morality of its people.