| | Good article.
It is sad that Beck, who is such a great political reporter, is also so deeply hung up on religion. And what makes it sad, is that it isn't necessary. There are many on the religious right who see religion as the goal and the political goals are of lesser importance, and as you might imagine, their political principles are fuzzy. But Beck's principles are more libertarian and his goals are primarily about political freedom, he is a capitalist, but he sees religion as needed to get from here to there. Sad. (He is right that we need morality, and that character is of critical importantance - but what a whopper of a mistake to imagine that only a Christian could behave morally or have character.)
It is so unnecessary since they could, from their mystical position just say that God created evolution, or nature or man... but that the individual rights arise logically from there. On the last Beck show I saw him discussing individual rights where they differentiated "individual rights" from "univeral rights" or "human rights" as being "individual" because God gave them to each person. Whereas the others are "collectivist" since they are given to everyone at once - it made me sick.
Beck and his supporters in this area are arguing that the founding fathers were deeply religious instead of just "Deists" which they are claiming was propoganda put forth by the Progessives over the last 100 years. Lots of the arguments are weak... and it is hard to make a determination since the entire culture in the 1700's was far more religious as compared to now (science has moved forward even if philosophy hasn't).
In the article, he says, "Despite the Founders’ numerous references to God, especially in the realm of morality, their basis for individual rights was natural, not supernatural." That had been my understanding - at least for Jefferson, but I'm not sure it is correct. But I do believe that their approach was closer to rational egoism than altruism and that it was natural, rather than supernatural, even if they believed that rights came from God. (The less science that there is in an era, the more that religion is used as the 'scientific' base for different areas).
The funny thing is that Beck has today's political factions properly understood: There are those who want Capitalism (or close to it) and those who are the progressives (and the rest are just confused). The progressives want an authoritarian structure - both the right and the left - the socialists, and the fascists. The funny part being that the right-wing progressives use God as their source of authority. Beck seems to be blind in that area.
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