Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying something to the effect of, "Any man who is willing to sacrifice liberty for the sake of security deserves neither liberty nor security."
I've been thinking and reading lately about some of these laws and regulations, particularly in the food and drug areas. They say that certain things are done to save lives, and if one life is saved, it's worth it. I'm not so sure. You see, no life is ever saved by government. It may be prolonged, but it is not saved.
If our national security is threatened -- that is, if someone is attacking us -- then the government (i.e. the military) ought to step in. But it is not the government's job to save us from ourselves. That cannot happen without undermining liberty.
And the Franklin quote seems to say that liberty is a higher priority than security.
I think I agree.
My body will someday rot in the ground. So will yours. Deal with it. Get used to it. If mine does because of something I ate, so be it. If it does because of some cancer I got from too much sunlight, so be it. If it does because of a car accident, so be it. I hope it is quick and painless, whenever it happens, and I hope it is a long time before it does. But that is not the government's place to say. Only if I am directly attacked by another human should the government be involved.
I am pro-life. No person has the right to intentionally take the life of another, especially if that person is defenseless. But that is as far as the government should go.
I'm reading Exodus right now. It strikes me how many Egyptians were struck dead simply so that they would acknowledge God. It also strikes me that God did all of this in order to achieve liberty for His people.
So there are some things more important than life. Acknowledgement of, and following, God is one of those things. Liberty is another.
Yet another reason I'm a Libertarian, and I believe that Christianity lines up perfectly well with the ideology.
Thoughts?
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