Recently there was a lecture on campus put on by the The Veritas Forum that set out to answer this question. The facts are: 1948 UN Declaration on Human Rights ascribes inviolable human rights to all persons just because they’re human. It doesn’t say why humans have special rights, just that they do. The question is: will this be successful in the long-term?
The main lecturer, Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff, argued that the only sufficient reason humans have rights are because God called us into existence and desired to have a relationship with us. God demonstrates that we’re something of value and this is the basis for human rights.
The main contrarian opinion said that human faculties (e.g. ability to reason, ability to love) indicate that humans, unlike animals, have free choice. This free choice should be oriented toward respect of others free choice. God doesn’t need to be in the picture for the existence of human rights.
Both these perspectives are interesting and worth further reflection.
I tend to agree with the theist’s argument but I hope for atheist’s. It would be great if there were true global consensus on the inviolability of human rights, regardless of the God question. The issue that I don’t think can be circumvented is that a true atheist believes only in the here and now. Clearly there’s an incentive to maximize the “utility” of the present state and strive to create a utopian world. What’s not clear is how that person will define utopia and the means he/she will use to get there. Most atheists will do this by beneficently caring for the sick, caring for the poor etc… but the 20th century’s history of atheist leaders striving to create worldly utopias ends with hundreds of millions dead (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot) because these people got in the way of the grand plan.
It seems to me that human rights are only secure when we can give a thick account for the reason one has dignity (made in the image and likeness of God), equality (God calls all to relationship with Him) and ultimate destination (God calls all to Heaven).
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