LIFE IS.............

Life is a gift of creation and thus a natural right.

When The Declaration of Independence declared that we are all created equal with unalienable rights among them life, life and pursuit of happiness, the reference applies more to natural rights than legal rights.  Natural rights are those given to all by the act of Creation.  Creation requires a creator.

The major writer of the Declaration was Thomas Jefferson.  The main editor was Benjamin Franklin.  The main publishers were the Committee of Five and the Final Approval and Distributors were the Members of the Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, PA in 1776.  Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston were the Committee of Five.  Jefferson, Adams, and Sherman were lawyers.  Franklin was a scientist and printer.  Livingston was a merchant.  Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin were Deists or greatly influenced by Deist views.  Sherman was a Congregationalist, and Livingston was a Presbyterian.  Thomas Paine and John Locke, writers and philosophers of the day, greatly influenced the writings of the Declaration especially the phrase "unalienable rights are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness."

Deist believed in a Creator that created the universe with natural laws.  After the Creation, the Creator basically let the natural laws created by the Creator create and continue to create.  Deists did not believe in miracles for they believed everything could be explained through the natural laws.  They rejected revealed religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.) and embraced Natural Religion or the view that the Creator gave reason and logic as the way to deal with life.

Life was viewed as an act of Creation by the Creator that continued through reproduction of asexual and sexual acts.  Birth was viewed as the beginning of life.  Life is thus a gift of one generation to another generation.  Birth is a natural act of creation governed by natural law.  Life is a natural right then because the Creator created life and passed the ability to continue this gift of creation to future generations of living things. Reason and logic is also the gift of the Creator that is passed from generation to generation.  Reason and logic reveal that life is an "unalienable right"  that cannot be sold or given away.

The gift of life as a natural right is to protected by government.  Because we are all equal, we are not under the common theory of the day, "the divine right of kings."  The Declaration declared that sovereigns or kings or rulers or the government do not have the right to take a life.  According to Paine, the only legitimate government is government approved by the governed.  Therefore, the Declaration declared independence from England because rule by the King was considered as illegitimate.

This raises some questions:  What about abortion?  Capital punishment?  War?  Self-Defense?  Do governments have the right to take any life?

Life is a process of maintenance.  

Biology is the science that studies living organisms.  Biology does not define life.  Biology describes life in terms of characteristics exhibited by living organisms.  Living things are organized into one or more cells.  Cells are the basic units of life.  Living organisms regulate their themselves.  Sweating is an example.  Sweating occurs as a way to reduce temperature.  Metabolism is another characteristic of living organisms.  Metabolism transfer energy and chemicals into cells so they can reproduce and the living organism can grow.  Metabolism also converts energy and chemicals into decomposing organic matter.  Living organisms are adaptable to the environment in which they live based on their heredity, diet and other external factors.  Living organisms respond to stimuli.  Living organisms also can reproduce.

Life in scientific terms is about maintenance in the sense that life produces life.  Yet each new generation may exhibit traits of evolution and change as new challenges to living organisms emerge from the interactions of government, individuals, and nature or the universe.

Life is living with meaning

The search for the meaning of life continues to fills volumes of written and spoken material as new ideas and philosophies emerge from the thoughts and ideas of the past.  These thoughts and ideas are influenced by religion and  politics as we seek to understand of who am I?  What am I doing here?  Life does not have meaning.

The meaning of life deals with issues like good and evil, good and bad, ethics, concept of God, the soul, afterlife, free will, happiness, ultimate reality, truth, and many other ways of describing and understanding why we are here on earth as living and breathing organisms called human.

This topic is too big to discuss in this blog now.  Let's leave that until tomorrow where we will talk about it with a fresh mind and the light of a new day.

Think about it.......

Roy