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Originally Posted by onelifecrisis
Edit4:
Now I'm confused. I checked Wikipedia and there have been no less than 27 amendments, with the last being as recent as 1992. For something that's "God given" it sure does get changed a lot.
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The constitution is based upon the liberalist ideas first set forth by John Locke, which hold that man, in his natural state, is free. That means freedom in all things, free to work, to play, to love, to fail, to succeed, etc. That may not seem like a revolutionary development to some, but it was at the time when the only people with God-given rights were in the church or the monarchy.
According to Locke, the rights of man are both neutral and negative (R. Nozicks words, Locke's idea) That means that any man is free to do whatever he wishes, so long as it does not impose consequences upon others without their consent. Of course, there has to be someone around to make sure that when people
do affect other people without their consent, they are punished for it. That means a government.
The Constitution strove to provide a government that would serve in such a capacity, but it was known that there would be a need for the document to change as more advances were made and the progress of the human race advanced to where more rights could be excercised. In short, it was felt that the freedom of the individual should expand, and the constitution was supposed to be the tool to make that happen. Thomas Jefferson lamented that it was the "natural progress of things for government to gain, and liberty to yield", and so he and his ilk set about trying to devise a way to reverse that progress.
The answer was the Amendment process. It was reasoned that if the supreme law of the land could only be changed by an overwhelming majority, only good advances would pass, and the minority parties would be protected from abusive majorities. For the most part, that system has worked pretty well. God-given rights have been protected for more people than just white, land-owning males, who at the time were seen as necessary for any kind of self-respecting society. Every Amendment passed has guaranteed more freedom, save the 18th, which itself was intended to "free" man from alcohol (and the devil), and which was promptly repealed.
So you see, it's not so much a statement of God-given rights as it is a system of government by consent intended to maximize the implementation of neutral and negative rights in a society; the God-given rights we have as uninfluenced individuals.