In the American political tradition, which claims kinship with Judeo-Christian morality, all is “evil” that violates the doctrine of natural rights, as set down in the Declaration of Independence. We are agreed on that. We are also agreed—if we accept the tradition—that the source of these rights is God; which is simply an admission that we have scratched our heads for some other explanation of these rights and, having found none, have taken recourse to “the nature of things.”
