The movement to establish an international legal basis for human rights after World War II has been one of the great achievements of our time. But do human rights have a sound theological basis? Sometimes it seems religions give the impression that God is indifferent to them. This challenge needs to be faced in order to find a firm foundation for rights.
Bio
Lord Richard Harries
Gresham Professor of Divinity since 2008, Lord Harries was the Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006. Prior to that, he was the Dean of King's College London, where he is now a Fellow and an Honorary Professor of Theology. He is an Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge and of St Anne's College, Oxford.
He also holds a number of other prestigious positions in other top British Universities. In 2006 he was made a Life Peer as Lord Harries of Pentregarth of Ceinewydd in the County of Dyfed and sits on the crossbenches.
Professor Harries is greatly concerned with social, political and inter-faith issues. As Bishop of Oxford, he was the Chairman of the Church of England Board for Social Responsibility between 1996 and 2001, and the Chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews between 1992 and 2001. He chaired the House of Bishops' Working Parties on issues surrounding Sexuality and Terrorism. He has been a board member of Christain Aid, a member of the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords (The Wakeman Commission), and a founder member of the Abrahamic Group in Oxford.
One of the many interests of Professor Harries is the question of medical ethics - an area in which he has published numerous articles and held a number of top positions. He chaired the Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research, was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics from 2002 to 2008 and he chairs the Ethics and Law Advisory Group of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Professor Harries has published 24 books and numerous articles, covering a wide range of interests. These include: Art and the Beauty of God (Mowbrays, 1993), Christianity and War in the Nuclear Age (Mowbrays, 1986), Is there a Gospel for the Rich? (Mowbrays, 1992), After the Evil: Christianity and Judaism after the Holocaust (OUP, 2003), C. S. Lewis: The Man and his God (Collins, 1987), and a collection of his contributions to 'Thought for the Day' on Radio 4's Today Programme to which he has been a regular contributor since 1972, In Gladness of Today (Harper Collins, 1999).
Rights that belong to an individual as a consequence of being human. The term came into wide use after World War II, replacing the earlier phrase “natural rights,” which had been associated with the Greco-Roman concept of natural law since the end of the Middle Ages. As understood today, human rights refer to a wide variety of values and capabilities reflecting the diversity of human circumstances and history. They are conceived of as universal, applying to all human beings everywhere, and as fundamental, referring to essential or basic human needs. Human rights have been classified historically in terms of the notion of three “generations” of human rights. The first generation of civil and political rights, associated with the Enlightenment and the English, American, and French revolutions, includes the rights to life and liberty and the rights to freedom of speech and worship. The second generation of economic, social, and cultural rights, associated with revolts against the predations of unregulated capitalism from the mid-19th century, includes the right to work and the right to an education. Finally, the third generation of solidarity rights, associated with the political and economic aspirations of developing and newly decolonized countries after World War II, includes the collective rights to political self-determination and economic development. Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, many treaties and agreements for the protection of human rights have been concluded through the auspices of the United Nations, and several regional systems of human rights law have been established. In the late 20th century ad hoc international criminal tribunals were convened to prosecute serious human rights violations and other crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The International Criminal Court, which came into existence in 2002, is empowered to prosecute crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide, and war crimes.
Why have millions and millions of man hours have been wasted on this work of fiction? I know a lot of young people spend thousands of hours studying Star Wars or Star Trek, even down to concocting alien languages and wardrobes. Why aren't these young people giving tax free status? Why can't they take their driver's license in Klingon? Why is one work of fiction any more valuable than any other?
Babies know right from wrong at birth, they share their food, they will reach out to be held by people of any race, they cry out of sympathy for others who are crying. It is only after they have been left to cry alone or been left hungry or in pain, or have seen their parents reactions of strangers, do they change their attitudes.
Human rights are completely trounced upon by religion, and should never be allowed in any government because it can not be argued against or for in any real terms, it is imaginary, just as imaginary as Star Wars.
"nothin we do can influence nature and human rights is natural, it is a consequence of civil societies and culture." -- moralwar
- We are the influence on society and consequently we claim society is civil. So there is something that can be done about human rights. Human Rights is defined as "fundamentally attributed to all individuals". in addition, nature, the term is derived from another term "to be born". The "right" to be born is said to be granted by a creative controlling force in the universe. This is where the inane, "life is a gift" comes from. Some who think this way vote against homosexuals getting married and some, years ago in this country, held slaves.
It is, now, uncivil to hold slaves or to oppress another "natural" person via slavery in america. But it is still done today elsewhere. Just as the spot of dirt one stands on turns again to face the sun so does this supposed lack of influence on the "natural" order of things go on and on.
Natural does not mean protected. "Human Rights" is a political term created and controlled by humans. Half of the Periodic Table is man-made.
We have great influence on all of these things.
But do human rights have a sound theological basis? Sometimes it seems religions give the impression that God is indifferent to them. This challenge needs to be faced in order to find a firm foundation for rights.
Religion can never be a firm foundation for anything imho, but I guess that depends on how you define "firm foundation"...
2000 years ago the discussion was probably like this: "But does slavery have a sound theological basis? Sometimes it seems religions give the impression that God is indifferent to slaves. This challenge needs to be faced in order to find a firm foundation for slavery."
Why does religion have to be the foundation? We already have a firm foundation, it's called democracy. remember, you gave a lecture about it a while ago... Also, the bible never mentions "human rights", just the opposite: "original sin". God is very clear on that, and not at all indifferent...
But just out of curiousity, how do "original sin" and "human rights" NOT work in totally opposite ways?!?
Yeah, you've got all the rights in the world, but after you die you'll burn in hell forevarharharhar...
We may speak of morality and human rights till doom's day, the fact remainds that we are instruments of nature - she uses us for her purpose. Nature brings us here uses us and destroys at will. nothin we do can influence nature and human rights is natural, it is a consequence of civil societies and culture. it preceeded the bible and even the formal knowledge of God. Wherever men congregate there will be laws and wherever laws exist, there will be concern for individual or corporate human rights. religion may have evolved because of human rights.
member. 
