With Absolute Truths Out the Window, Cue the Demigods

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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

— Declaration of Independence

When Dr. Fauci declared “I represent science” he did not simply reject the recent criticism he has faced, he elevated himself above any criticism.

In our postmodern world where absolutes are absolutely rejected, our experts become demigods who have a monopoly on truth. This has become possible because American society has, by and large, replaced God with science as the de facto authority on all questions pertaining to life.

Nevermind the fact that modern science was started by Christians or that more than 60% of Nobel laureates of the 20th Century were people of faith. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “Men became scientists because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator.” Science answers the “how” while faith answers the “why.”

Faith in America has been on the decline for the last 30 years. In data collected in 2018, nearly 24% of Americans had no religious affiliation — an increase of 50% in just 12 years.

Generation Z, the least-religious of all American generations, is deemed as the first post-Christian generation. While nearly 2/3 of Americans still describe themselves as Christians, the cultural rejection of the Creator strikes at the heart of our national divide.

When God is rejected, God-given rights are rejected, and when God-given rights are rejected, the majority in power now become the authors, providers, and guarantors of rights. The unfortunate result is that people must increasingly look to the authorities as the ultimate arbiter of all questions pertaining to life, leading to an increase in the scope, size, and scale of government.

Historical record reveals how poorly humans have dealt with such authority. As Lord Acton once stated, power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.

In the form and structure of the Declaration of Independence, first comes rights then comes government. But now because of the removal of the Divine, the natural next step is to reverse the order. First comes government, then comes rights. Cue the demigods.

Historically the Left embraces big government while the right embraces big business. As I described in last month’s Red Pill piece, these historical enemies have combined on K Street, to consolidate power, thereby reducing the sovereignty of the American people to an unelected bureaucratic behemoth served by special interests.

Before long, these unelected demigods begin to make consequential decisions, which have ramifications on all of our lives.

According to Columbia law professor John Coffee’s long-time estimate, there are over 300,000 federal regulations that carry criminal penalties. These regulations are far reaching, touching nearly every aspect of our lives most often without our knowledge.

James Madison famously wrote in Federalist 62: “It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood: if they be repealed or revised before they are promulg[at]ed, or undergo such incessant changes, that no man who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.”

In the late 18th century, there were two revolutions which would rock the world. The French Revolution of 1789 replaced God with human reason and enlightenment and would turn France into a perpetual bloody struggle for power with another 17 revolutions. Whoever seized power became the law, until a Dictator named Napoleon would crush the opposition.

Whereas the American Revolution of 1776 was based upon unalienable rights from the Creator and would create the longest-standing Constitution in the world today. No authority whether a king, parliament, or supreme judge would be permitted to otherwise limit, remove or redefine the God-given unalienable rights to all mankind.

This unprecedented declaration of equality would find resistance within our own borders and it would take a Civil War to turn that tide.

No form of government is perfect because it is comprised of imperfect people governing imperfect people. Still, thousands of governments throughout the millennia of history give ample evidence to draw comparisons.

Among the nations of the earth, none has raised more people out of poverty, given more charity to the poor, advanced human rights, defended the rights of conscience, naturalized more immigrants, and defended the cause of freedom than the United States of America. We would do well to look at 1776 rather than 1789 for our principles of freedom.