MAN’S LAW VS. THE LAWS OF NATURE
by Michael Gaddy, ©2016, blogging at The Rebel Madman
(Apr. 8, 2016) — “As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose—that it may violate property instead of protecting it—then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself from plunder or use it for plunder.” ~ Frederic Bastiat
We have all been brought up hearing the phrase “the rule of law.” We also hear often that we are a “nation of laws” not a “nation of men.” We have common law, constitutional law, blue laws, supreme law, the law of the jungle, civil law and Jefferson’s “the Law of Nature and Nature’s God.”
Is it possible all of the laws mentioned above are compatible? Does any one of them contradict the others? We all should know laws are to be created by a legislature for the primary purpose of protecting our individual rights. To accomplish that purpose all laws created by that legislature must be “in pursuance of” our established Constitution and Bill of Rights. Any law that is contrary to the pursuance of our Constitution is null, void and of no force.
Many years ago, in my first Civics class, I remember being taught that without government, society would decay to a level known as anarchy. Later I would learn the definition of the word “anarchy” has been changed by those who practice civil religion to mean a chaotic condition brought about by the lack of government while those who practice spiritual religion define anarchy as without God.
All governments depend on the support of the people they govern either through willful compliance or force and coercion. Almost all governments eventually devolve from the former to the latter. It is important to understand at what point governments morph from “consent of the governed” to “by order of the government.” It is of more importance to understand the change is gradual and is brought about using the laws of that society created by their government. Making unconstitutional/criminal acts lawful is vital to government dominance and control over the people. Jefferson told us “the law is often nothing but the tyrants will and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”
Tyrants will insist their will, the object of the laws they pass must be obeyed. They will often ask “do you believe you are above the law” when encountering a challenge to their unlawful actions or rules.
Tyranny will flourish where the victims of that tyranny believe they are bound to support that tyranny by observing and adhering to the laws of the tyrant. All governments are not good and all laws are not legitimate, nor should they be followed blindly.
Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin Dada, Vladimir Lenin, Pol Pot and many other tyrants in history sat in control of what were considered by them and in some cases many of their citizens to be legitimate, valid governments which acted on laws which that government passed and enforced. Many of these governments were recognized by world leaders—-just as our government is recognized by other nations today.
A fatal mistake, which is always destructive of individual liberty, is when a majority of people in a given society believe their government is not tyrannical based simply on the premise it is their government. In other words, no matter how corrupt other country’s governments are, ours is beyond reproach simply because it is our government. Therefore, whatever we do is right and our government is #1.
Governments swirl, then spin down the drain of tyranny and oppression when a majority of the people fail to hold the government to the limitations of the documents and principles which founded that government. Most important among those documents and principles in this country is our Declaration of Independence. The very basis of our independence is listed there and it is founded on “the laws of nature and nature’s God.”
One of our unfortunately forgotten founders, George Mason of Virginia, stated,
“The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth…All human constitutions which contradict His laws, we are in conscience bound to disobey.”
The concept of Natural Law and man’s law being sometimes diametrically opposed is much older than George Mason and the founding of our country. In fact, this philosophy is older than Christ. Marcus Tullius Cicero stated,
“Power and the law are not synonymous. In truth, they are frequently in opposition and irreconcilable. There is God’s law from which all equitable laws of man emerge and by which man must live if they are not to die in oppression, chaos and despair.”
Natural law or the law of nature is based on morality. Without a moral basis, all governments eventually begin a downward spiral which ends with genocide. In the twentieth century alone, governments murdered over 200 million of their own citizens; citizens which at some time during their lives looked to their government for protection and as benign and lawful, just as many Americans look to our government today.
Sometimes people criticize morality based laws and point to the hypocrisy of those who claim fealty to their religion as justifying ridicule of that faith. Yet, they refuse to judge their government and their politicians using the same scale of discernment. How can any politician or government employee who takes a sacred oath to our Constitution and then sets about systematically and intentionally to destroy that same Constitution be given respect and obedience to his/her laws while those who fail to faithfully keep the tenets of their faith are riddled with derision?
Recently, TV newscasts and other media sources have been extremely critical of legislation in several states which would allow citizens of those several states to refuse to serve or engage in normal business practices with members of the homosexual community based on claimed religious principles. This is a clearly defined battle between the inalienable rights of the individual as defined by our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the laws of man.
If a person chooses not to do business with anyone, for any reason, it is within their rights as an individual to do so even if it denies them monetary gain. Any laws of man or coercion by other means which mandates a person operate against their natural rights is the very essence of tyranny. If a law of man mandates an individual must do business with those whom they choose not to, such laws can also mandate that person not be in business at all, mandate what products they can or cannot sell and even from whom they must purchase the necessities of business and how much they can charge for what is their private property.
People, there is something much more serious and ominous here than baking a cake for a homosexual wedding. This is a battle for domination between Natural Law and man’s law and the central government’s domination of the individual and the destruction of our private property rights. Several state legislatures and governors have written and signed into law provisions which protect the rights of states and individuals within those states to act according to their moral and spiritual beliefs. This is the very essence of freedom, liberty, and our Tenth Amendment. The governors of these states and their legislators are to be commended, not condemned and those who lacked the courage to sign these pieces of legislation in Arizona and Georgia are to be exposed for the unconstitutional cowards they are.
If we are to enjoy the rights defined in the First Amendment to our Constitution, among which is the “freedom of association,” do we not also have the right of freedom not to associate based on our personal and individual beliefs. To use man’s law to force association with those whom we do not want to associate is the seed of perpetual conflict and eventual violence.
At what point will man’s “diversity” driven laws mandate attendance by all to worship services in a mosque? Ridiculous, you claim. Really? How ridiculous was a baker being forced to bake a cake for a homosexual couple 50 years ago? How ludicrous would it have been for a male student to have entered a girl’s locker room because he “identified” as a female in the 1960s, 70s, or 80s?
Natural laws are antecedent to the laws of man and his various governments. By definition, they are inalienable and therefore cannot be superseded or legislated into oblivion by people of little to no character who have been able to trick a majority of the institutionalized ignorant and weepy emotionalists into voting for them.
Our Declaration of Independence is the charter of our country and the Constitution and Bill of Rights are the by-laws. They are inextricably linked to the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God. Man’s laws are arbitrary, inconsistent and based on the flawed nature of man. Inevitably, man’s laws lead to death, destruction and chaos. But, regardless, people overwhelmingly choose man’s laws over Natural law because they appeal to the emotions rather than intellect.
Man’s laws lead to the chaos such as that witnessed on a daily basis in the streets of this country’s larger cities which have become the modern-day “killing fields.” Every 2 hours and 39 minutes a person is shot on the streets of Chicago and every 14 hours and 47 minutes a person is shot and killed. So far this year 140 people have been shot and killed and 747 people have been shot and wounded. This would officially qualify Chicago as a war zone. Yet, Chicago is not in Forbes Magazines listing of the 10 most violent cities in this country. The people of Chicago and other large American cities are laboring under the laws of man, with all of its attendant benefits, perils, and daily savagery—-But—-a homosexual couple can purchase all the wedding cakes they want, so all is right with the world in socialist America.
When and if you are asked “Are you above the law,” make darned sure you know which laws they are referencing: Man’s laws or the laws of Nature and Nature’s God? The difference is between Liberty and slavery.