Who or what is the enforcer of the unalienable human right to live? It is either man, or it is a supreme being. If it is man, then there is no unalienable human right to live.What makes a right unalienable? If you have the right to live, then my life must be protected by a law. If it is protected by a law, then there must be a punishment or consequence for the violation of that law. In addition there must be a means to enforce the punishment or the consequence.
"How could there be a law save there was a punishment?" Alma 42:17
"If there was no law given - [for example, if the following law did not exist:] If a man murdered he should die - Would he be afraid he would die if he should murder?" Alma 42:19
Consider the following example:
Abel, Ben, and Cain move to the island called Leviathan to live in isolation. They agree on a set of standards by which they will live and interact with one another. One of the standards they put to law is that each person on the island has an inalienable right to live. Their law specifically states, "thou shalt not murder". Furthermore, they each agree that the punishment for the crime of murder is life imprisonment of the offender. A law has been established protecting human life, and a punishment has been affixed for its violation.
A few months pass, and Abel has been able to successfully grow a large and bountiful crop. Cain sees Abel's crops and decides to kill Abel so that he can take possession of them. Ben sees Cain kill Abel, and comes to enforce the punishment affixed to the law that was broken. Cain knows what Ben is coming to do and not wanting to be imprisoned, kills Ben.
Cain is left as the only human on the island of Leviathan, and now has possession of the whole of it and all there on. There is no one to enforce the law, "thou shalt not murder". There is no one to protect or enforce the unalienable human right to live. On this island, is there an unalienable human right to life? If there is no enforcement or punishment, there is no law; if there is no law there is no right.
The human right to life is as strong as the enforcer. The enforcement must be universal for every single individual or it is not an inalienable human right. An inalienable right can only be enforced by an omniscient supreme being. Unless mankind is able to enforce every violation of established human rights, there are no inalienable rights.
The existence of a Supreme and Just Being must be acknowledged in order to believe in the existence inalienable human rights. If the existence of a Supreme Being is not recognized, then there is no one on earth capable of enforcing the then whimsical notion of the human right to live. If God is not recognized as the source nor the supreme administrator of omniscient justice, then there is no enforcement to make the declaration "inalienable".
If there is no one to universally enforce, then there is no law (regardless of what people believe to the contrary), if there is no law, then there is no right. If there is no natural or inalienable right, then whoever has the monopoly of brute force determines your rights, your freedom, and your liberty. Such a declaration then is only a legal or bestowed right decided by the monopoly.
If the monopoly is benign, the people may not be oppressed. If the monopoly is tyrannical the people will suffer. Human beings do not have the capacity to universally enforce an inalienable right.
"But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God." Alma 42:22
So there are only two logical choices:
(1) God exists and will enforce all violations against the inalienable rights He has granted, or,
(2) There is no God, and thus there is no possibility of universal enforcement of the most basic human right, the right to live. All rights enjoyed by man are determined by whomever has the most power.
The second choice is what Thomas Hobbes believed, and called the "state of nature" in his book Leviathan. The second choice is a world without morals. A world that tries to maximize pleasure while reducing pain. A world where good is defined as what brings pleasure, and evil as what brings pain. A world that equates rights with desires.
In the Hobbesonian world, which is pervasive in our society, is the world in which people enter as they forsake God and deny Him as the author of the Law that will be enforced.
"Rights are simply equivalent to desires, so that "I have a right to do X" is merely another way of saying 'I have a desire to do X'".1
This perverted concept of rights equated to desires was also taught by a man name Korihor in approximately 76 B.C. He suggested that "every man conquer[s] according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime." (Alma 30:17) For Korihor, might makes right. There is no God, so the strongest man is the enforcer of all laws and rights. Human rights are thus protected by the will of the enforcer. So if you want your life protected, be sure to never make the enforcer angry.
Korihor argued that religious interference into the laws of the land violated the peoples rights (or desires) to do whatever they wanted. While arguing with authorities he stated "Ye lead away this people after the foolish [religious beliefs] of your fathers, and according to your own desires; and ye keep them down, even as it were in bondage...that they durst not enjoy their rights and privileges".(Alma 30:27)
To Korihor, laws forbidding theft, adultery, and homosexuality violated people's rights, or in other words their desires. The first step for any tyrant to gain power, is to deny God and defy the universal laws that will be enforced. Korihor mocks the people's belief in a supreme being and their adherence to moral values that inhibit non believers from receiving government sanction for their base desires.
If individuals can be persuaded to separate God from their belief system, they can be decoyed into accepting the false concept that rights equal desires.
For Hobbes, Korihor, and their followers "it is the entire job of government to protect and maximize the expression of these individual rights/desires while simultaneously minimizing conflict with other rights/desires-bearing individuals...Hobbesian justice is therefore understood as a kind of inversion of the golden rule:...let others do what they want (as long as whatever they do is not directly hurting you), so that you may do whatever you want (as long as you are not directly hurting others)."2 How often do you here this in society today?
The LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver. - Isaiah 33:22. The Lord Almighty is the Enforcer of the human right to live. All murderers will be brought to justice by Justice himself. All victims of murder will have that which was taken restored through the resurrection.
Part 2 will define inalienable rights.
1 Wiker, Benjamin. Ten Books that Screwed Up the World And Five Others that Didn't Help. Grand Rapids: Regnery, 2008.
2 Ibid.
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