The Theory Of Divine Right

The Declaration of Independence is one of the most remarkable documents of the United States of America. The elaborate document contains almost fourteen-hundred words including a basic structure divided into two parts and within the two divided parts contains four main ideas within seven components. The declaration is not just any standard written document; it is a work of art painted by colonists who are driven by rage because of King George III of Great Britain injustices’ toward the colonies. This exemplifies that colonists took control and took part in creating the Declaration of Independence by voicing their opinions, hoping to acquire the freedom they deserve, “through time, to come together in one place, in one time, and in one

“If God does not exist, then everything is permitted,” in other words, if there turns out to be no God then nothing is morally wrong.

He encouraged that subjects do not listen to the voice of God, and only their ruler. Bossuet, however, believed that God possesses all power and rulers were anointed by Him. Bossuet states, “But kings, although their power comes from on high, as has been said, should not regard themselves as masters of that power to use it at their pleasure; . . . they must employ it with fear and self-restraint, as a thing coming from God and of which God will demand and account” (Bousset). Although his views are similar to those of Hobbes, Bossuet 's theory of absolutism is favorable because God is the head of government. Nonetheless, this still leaves civilians in the hands of their rulers, who can falsely say they have a divine right to the throne.

France stood as the center for the Enlightenment because it was in a constant dichotomy between “the desire to censor dissident ideas and the desire to appear open to modernity and progress” (Hunt, 4098). Parliament hindered the monarchy’s reform efforts by using their own words of Enlightenment influence against them. This was a paradox that showed how the Enlightenment affected all levels of French life, but was applied to achieve different results. While the American Revolution and the resulting new republic was regarded as a successful application of the Enlightenment, the unstable, failed attempts at change and reformation in France led to early signs of revolution as revolts “in the name of liberty” from 1787-1789.

Today, many American’s are proud to identify that the Declaration of Independence marks the beginning of freedom for North America. However, as students in history classes across American schools and colleges dig deeper into the realities of the country’s battles for freedom of rights it represents that from the beginning the Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the American people. The signing of the Declaration of Independence on the face of it depicts it as liberty and democracy, but the realism is that the American colonists had little choice or no choice at all, in how the American British governed its people. It is clear, the American colonies never gave up their fight for freedom and human rights, but the British Revolution still

The divine command theory states that “An act is morally required just because it is commanded by God and immoral just because God forbids it” (Shafer-Landau, The Fundamentals of Ethics, p.67). In interviewing an Elder of a local Jehovah’s Witness congregation on the ethics involved in religion, he agreed that the divine command theory is correct, and that there are many commands and things that are forbidden in the bible that are considered to be God’s standards for the way we live our lives. But, when asked the modified version of the Euthyphro Question: is an action morally right because God commands it, or does God command an action because it is morally right, (Shafer-Landau, The Ethical Life, p.57) he picked the latter. Despite agreeing with the statement that the divine command theory makes, picking the latter is not uncommon even if the first affirms the theory. The statement that God commands an action because it is morally right, “implies that God did not invent morality, but rather recognized an existing moral law and then commanded us to obey it” (Shafer-Landau, The Fundamentals of Ethics, p.67-68). This does not make the Elder’s message wrong, in fact most theists don’t follow the divine command theory. This is based on the fact that if the theory were true, whatever God says is a command, and therefore morally right, but God could have said that rape, murder, and stealing is morally right if that was the line of thinking.

The fire was burning too brightly and in order to contain the flames out of this came the creation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen on the 26 August 1789 by the National Assembly, composed of those from the Third Estate. This declaration was heavily influenced by the American Revolution and Thomas Jefferson, who one of the founding fathers and a principal author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was all about man’s ‘natural right’ at any time and pertaining to any individual, no matter where they were in the world. This is one of the most important and significant declarations created in all of history. It created an outcry and demand for similar rights and liberty across all of Europe, where most countries were still dominated by the establishment of the monarchy. It also spread universally, to places such as the Caribbean and the Middle East who wanted a democratic republic just like France had been aiming for. What many countries started to see was that such freedom was born out of the ever growing reality of nationalism, which had already caused terror among and against the people.

The Declaration of Independence written on July 4, 1776, was the first of the three documents written. When reading this document it is hard to ignore the emotion it exudes of a people not just longing for independence, but rather who’ve grown tiresome of the lack of equality compared to that of those on the motherland. The Declaration of Independence is the autonomous stance of a people declaring not just independence, but claiming their right to disassociate themselves from under the leadership from whom they consider a tyrant and therefore, “unfit” to be a leader of the free land. Unlike the US Constitution, this document discusses and/or lists in depth the atrocities and unconstitutional acts displayed by the ruler of England, the King and its theme is more so a grievance.

Throughout the years of 1750-1914, an age of revolutions broke out, causing a global change in politics. The Enlightenment Ideals influenced this worldwide change, from the social contract, separation of power, and natural rights. The social contract influenced the revolutions when all middle/lower class people wanted equality in their country. Natural rights take place in the worldwide revolutions because everyone wants to live with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some documents that influence these revolutions are the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and The Saint-Domingue Constitution of 1801.

The view that the Enlightenment had directly caused the French Revolution is considered as one of the oldest interpretations. When considering the reliability of this view, one must take into account the possibility that it has been outdated by other historians’ interpretations that have emerged afterwards. Revisionist historians such as William Doyle argue that the Philosophes themselves did not have revolutionary intentions. Doyle questioned the notion that the Enlightenment was the sole cause of the French Revolution by considering that even if the Philosophes had not inputted, the French Revolution might have still happened. (Adcock, 2004, p.27) But before the Enlightenment, inequality had existed under the ancien régime for hundreds of years-the culture of deference was imbedded within law and tradition.

In his piece, “Ideologies and Social Revolutions”, William Sewell Jr. makes an argument that the 1789 revolution in France has as much to do about ideology than anything. Sewell makes his argument by looking at two central ideologies, the corporate monarchial and the Enlightenment ideologies. These two competing ideologies were key to the reasons behind the French Revolution.

Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence had the intention of changing minds. Signed on July 4, 1776, this historical document was meant to reach beyond oceans. First, Jefferson opens up the declaration by presenting why the actions of rebellion by the American people were legitimate. Secondly, it targeted citizens of foreign countries such as France and mentions universal values such as “sacred Honor” and “the voice of justice” to effectively connect with the prospective readers. Jefferson describes in detail injustices the British king committed against the colonists to justify their separation from the “Crown” as he puts it. Furthermore, the potential reader whether an average citizen or foreign leader is see the thirteen colonies

Two very important documents, similar but different in many ways, changed the way three of todays countries functioned. The Declaration of Independence made it so the 13 Colonies could become the United States of America and was separated from England. and The Declaration of the Rights of Man got France’s King and Queen executed and threw them into the Reign of Terror. One of the main differences between the two documents is that The Declaration of Independence was written to have Americas ties completely cut from Britain as their mother country, and The Declaration of the Rights of Man was written to change the way the

The 18th century is referred to as the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. The trends in thought and letters from Europe to the American colonies brought a new light and attention upon mankind. This new movement described a time in Western philosophy and cultural life in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority. ‘To understand the natural world and humankinds place in it solely on the basis of reason and without turning to religious belief was the goal of the wide-ranging intellectual movement’ (Hackett). At the heart o this age, a conflict began between religion and the inquiring mind that wanted to know and understand through reason based on evidence and proof rather than belief on faith alone.

The French Revolution of 1789 changed the meaning of the word “revolution.” Prior to this year, revolution meant restoring a previous form of government that had been taken away. Since then, revolution has meant creating a new institution of government that did not previously exist. This required that a constitution be drafted. After a series of four mini-revolutions from May to July, the “Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen” was released on the twenty-sixth of August, 1789. When the French revolutionaries drew up the Declaration, they wanted to end the traditions surrounding hereditary monarchy and establish new institutions based on the principles of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment