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Why Human Rights Are Impossible Without Religion
John Warwick Montgomery
John
Warwick Montgomery, Professor at the University of Luton, United Kingdom,
argues that inalienable human rights have no foundation outside of religious
thought.
As Thomas Jefferson declared: And can the liberties of a nation be
thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction
in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?
("Notes on the State of Virginia," Query XVIII,
1787). Jefferson is echoing the words found near the beginning of the
Declaration of Independence: " ... that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Professor Montgomery holds eight earned degrees besides, the LL.B.: the A.B. with distinction in Philosophy
(Cornell University; Phi Beta Kappa), B.L.S. and M.A. (University of California at Berkeley), B.D. and S.T.M.
(Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio), M. Phil. in Law (University of Essex, England), Ph.D. (University of Chicago),
and the Doctorat d'Universite from Strasbourg, France. Before moving to the United Kingdom, he served on the faculty of the
University of Chicago and was Chairman of the Department of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.
Dr. Montgomery is author of more than one hundred scholarly journal articles
and more than forty books in English, French, Spanish and German. He is internationally
regarded both as a theologian (his debates with the late Bishop James Pike,
death-of-God advocate Thomas Altizer, and situation-ethicist Joseph Fletcher
are historic) and as a lawyer (barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple and
Lincoln's Inn, England; member of the California, Virginia, Washington State,
and District of Columbia Bars and the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United
States). He is one of only six persons to have received the Diploma of the
International Institute of Human Rights cum laude, and was the Institute's
Director of Studies from 1979 to 1981.
Program recording date and length: 1999 ~ 1 Hour 27 Minutes (This study was presented originally at the University of California, Santa Barbara.)
