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As you may recall, John Locke's theory of natural rights was the basis of the Declaration of Independence's statement that we are "endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights".
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I have been working on natural rights in my spare time for several years and I finally feel prepared to talk about them publicly. My research has assured me that this new basis for natural rights is unique, unprecedented, and powerful.
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In this essay, I explain how natural rights are embedded in the very fabric of nature so deeply that they cannot be dismissed as being religious. This seems timely as we begin our Semiquincentennial in January. By the way, this does NOT replace the Creator but shows how the endowment was done. Because it is based on Physics, it can't be dismissed by atheists.
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The basis described was given to me as an answer to prayer back in 1976 as I was writing an eight-article, Bicentennial feature series for The Freeman magazine. I got up the audacity to ask God if there was a basis that didn't depend on Him so non-believers could not dismiss those rights. Immediately, there came into my mind the idea that a beaver has the right to cut down trees, and trees have the right to mine the soil, capture sunlight, and split rocks, and that rocks have property rights in the space they occupy.
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If, after reading this, you cotton to the idea and want to share it, the simple way is to ask the question: "Does a beaver have the right to cut down trees?" That question opens the subject easily and powerfully.
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