Peter Boston 100: “The individual human being is the singularly most important element of Creation.”
The individual is the most important element of creation because all are equally made in the image of God – all are of infinite value – none are “more equal than others.” If man is made in the image of God then, since God lives, man has a sacred unalienable right to life and self-defense. If man is made in the image of God then, since God is free, man is born free with a sacred unalienable right to liberty. If man is made in the image of God then, since God is the Great Creator, man has a sacred unalienable right to his own creativity – an unalienable right to the fruit of his own labor – an unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness.
If man is made in the image of God then the Declaration of Independence is true. If man is made only in the image of an animal (or pond scum) then the Communist Manifesto is true.
“We ought to consider what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man.” John Adams
http://www.liberty1.org/thoughts.htm
“Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.” Samuel Adams
http://history.hanover.edu/texts/adamss.html
“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” Thomas Jefferson
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff0100.htm
“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.” Thomas Jefferson
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm
“Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand… You must, therefore, confess that by “individual” you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible.” Karl Marx
http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
