“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The word “Creator” is capitalized and we state unequivocally this does not indicate any human agency, such as a parent, and two “truths” are obvious: men are created equal and have unalienable Rights and some, but not all, of these rights are listed. We note that while men are created equal and in the end are equal, they are unequal in the middle, that is to say, during their lives.
We realize that God and Creator are not strictly speaking synonymous, but we will allow some leeway as people sometimes “misspeak” either in a moment of haste, through ignorance or having an improper opinion. We will allow some fluidity between the terms God and Creator in our example. However, if the caption said “Our rights comes from Jesus...”, then we would agree that this statement would not be agreeable to our Founding Fathers. Although some people consider Jesus to be God, and sometimes God is called the “Creator”, under this scenario it could be be understood that Jesus is the Creator. Therefore, we believe that our Founding Fathers, as a group, would not find the statement disconcerting as suggested.
Why did our Founding Fathers explicitly state that these rights come from the Creator and not from the state? By proposing that certain rights originate from the Creator, and these rights pertain to everyone, at all times and everywhere, without exception. These universal rights cannot be revoked by the state. [“The state gives and the state takes away, blessed be the state.”] Our Founding Fathers clearly understood what they were writing-from the premise to the implications.
The Founding Fathers did not state that these rights originate with God and we suggest that use of the term “God” may have a greater probability of being misunderstood than the word “Creator”, although we concede that both words are ambiguous. For example, God may be understood as all powerful, all knowing and all good, while these characteristics are infrequently applied to the “Creator”.
We cannot help but observe that “Creator” and “Great Architect of the Universe” are terms that can have a different meaning among individuals, that is, these terms are ambiguous and ill defined. “The Great Architect of the Universe” is an appellation found in Masonic bodies, while the use of “Creator” is not limited to specific groups. In this sense, the “Great Architect of the Universe” is less vague than the “Creator”, since the audience for these writings are limited.
The Founding Fathers did not state that these rights originate with Jesus, although certain individuals loudly proclaim our founding as a Christian nation, they are mistaken, as all Christian countries prior to 1776 had an established tradition of having a Christian monarch, usually a king. The United States was the first country in the western world to not have a Christian king with an official state supported religion. Therefore, we conclude that while our Founding Fathers collectively possessed many attributes and characteristics, among these distinctive qualifiers is that all were traitors to the Crown, promoting a state religion was not among their intentions.
Finally, we note that the word “Creator” can be distinguished from “God” in Deist thought. Deism states that God created the universe accord to certain laws, among them natural law, and he no longer takes an active role in the maintenance of his work. In modern management parlance, it could be said that the Creator is the first example of the “hands off” management style that has found favor in recent years. Unlike human managers, the Creator is never in his designated office, no longer participates in mandatory meetings and has left no contact information. His staff must make due with the little direction that he provided at the initiation of operations before his subsequent departure to parts unknown and, if office gossip is to be believed, for an indeterminate duration. Current and future personnel must content themselves with a meager “To Do “ list consisting of, but not limited to, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.