Foundation of N.A.P- Image of God
Foundation of N.A.P- Image of God
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his Own image.” Genesis 9:6 ESV
Often, people associate those who believe in liberty, aka libertarians, with hedonistic atheism. They think that to be Libertarian, you must be some wack job who has crazy ideas about what's morally right or wrong. So, the only party that will accept them is the liberty party. The irony is one of the most fundamental principles in Libertarianism is more justly founded in Christian morals than secular morals.
The Non-Aggression Principle
The non-aggression principle is simply a systematic way of thinking about Criminology or what makes something a crime. I wanted to include it in this early introductory content because of how much it pervades a 'Christian liberty philosophy. Anytime a conversation comes up that discusses the theory of what makes something a crime or not, libertarians turn to the ever-faithful NAP or Non-Aggression Principle. One of the problems of any theory of how the world should work, like Economics and Politics, is dependence on the data and analysis of what has worked in the past and most importantly, what universal morality can be agreed on by all Mankind?
The problem with this for non-religious or secular people is just understanding what and how of the world, and in this case, economics, civil rights, and politics, but does not help you with the why and the purpose of economies, civil rights, and politics. The purpose of something is rooted in morality, and morality must be just in some sort of Universal Objective Truth. The problem is that Atheism cannot give you morality, let alone Universal Objective Truth. All secular people happen to act good because they are merely copying religious folk. (I know I was an atheist up until I was 16). They are not able to have any grounds for value, purpose, or morality. In their theory, we are in an accidental, impersonal universe that over time, unilaterally generated complex conscience life. Even among that life, most of it is plants or non-human animals that are not complex in their morals and usually only live and have the purpose to survive. So, the question for Atheists is how do they get a moral framework that a Political-Economic theory can build on? For example, how could you develop a theory of the morality of theft if the only moral standard you can muster is "survival of the fittest" from the animal kingdom, where they steal from each other and kill each other with no remorse or legal repercussions or penalties at all? If you have not put it together, you cannot. I know I was an Atheist Nihilist before coming to Christ. Providentially, all hope is not lost, though. Our options are more than just the animal kingdom to gain a moral Objective Truth.
The Bible says, "Whoever sheds the blood of man his blood shall be shed, for God made man in his own image." Genesis 9:6 While atheism says that humans are merely evolved apes, Christianity says we were designed after the creator God Himself. Due to this exceptional and elevated status of God imagers or God-like creatures, our valve supersedes all other life forms. This verse serves as an objective standard that it is morally evil to put a man to death because, objectively, we are designed by God to image Himself. This text is a sure foundation and footing for objective universal criminology. The NAP clearly agrees with this text, not necessarily in the penalty but in the value of human life. The NAP says all humans have the right to only take part in consensual acts. If something is done without someone's consent, think of the main four crimes:
Theft
Murder
Rape
Battery
Every one of those assumes that the life of your fellow man has equal value to your own. So, the political ideology of “might makes right” and “the end justifies the means” (Utilitarianism is the technical name), which is really just a political take on survival of the fittest, is out the window.
So funnily enough, not only is the Non-Aggression Principle not a secular political theory, but oddly enough, all its bedrock stances of self-ownership, self-government, the NAP, and civil rights like freedom of speech need a universal value equalizer that can bring about universal objective morality that one can build to decipher who the evil criminals are and who the good innocent, law-abiding citizens are. Without the biblical principle of the Image of God in man logically, we would not stop ourselves, like we have in modern times, from constant wars and stop all acts of non-consensual harm to others. The subjective morals of the animal kingdom would prevail, and society would know it would be unsustainable because there would be no deterrent or threat to an evildoer violating the rights of other people. So, is libertarianism secular philosophically? I would say no, it needs religion to establish the moral claim that human life is the most valuable thing, and a person has a right to his own body and personal property, over anyone else. Thus the foundation for the libertarian principle of the Non-Aggression principle is the Christian Doctrine of the Image of God (Gen. 9:6)
Tim is a Christian author. His worldview that informs his writing is Calvinist, Baptist, and Libertarian. His main series is his Christian picture book series, “About God for Kids”, where he discusses the attributes of God in a way kids can digest. He also wrote a Christian Romance novel, libertarian book for beginners, and Christian coloring books. He graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biblical Studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
You can find his works at his amazon author page,
https://amazon.com/author/timbankes
There is a ton of free books at his author page. Also If you are into Christian Fiction, he has made his first book in his Futuristic Christian Fiction series free, Her Dying Wish
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