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The Greco-Christian Beliefs Of American Democracy

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In the winter of December 7th, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Constitution was ratified to establish the new country of the United States as a democracy. After their victory over the British for American Independence, the United States government created the Constitution in an effort to further establish themselves as an independent nation. With a new form of government that would not allow the injustices caused by the British monarchy to occur again, the Constitution’s fundamental principles abided by many of the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian beliefs about people and government. The Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman seeds of democracy contributed to the United States’ democratic government by protecting the rights of the individual and by giving the ability for the citizens to vote on its leaders and laws.
The American Constitution was influenced partly by Judeo-Christian ideas, mainly that the natural rights of individual should be protected and unalienable. Followers of Judaism surmised that humans were created in God’s image, and as such each individual “has a divine spark that gives him or her a dignity that cannot be taken away” (M.W.H. 12). In the American democracy, the Bill of Rights gives all of the country’s citizens certain rights that are unalienable, and cannot be taken away. As opposed to other forms of government, where the social status of a citizen determined his or her rights, the American Constitution gave all citizens the same rights

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