By Tim Baxter Los Angeles
This is a response to “Putting ‘Independence’ back where it belongs” by Michael Berliner of the Ayn Rand Institute (July 3). He would like us to believe that the Founding Fathers were a bunch of atheists and/or secularists. The truth is quite the opposite. Not one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was an atheist. (Berliner) conveniently forgets to mention the four separate references to God in the Declaration of Independence. He isn’t fooling anybody. Anyone can search the Internet and read the Declaration for themselves.
Mr. Berliner embraces the Declaration, yet rejects the existence of God. You can’t have it both ways. He also forgets to name the source of our rights which is spelled out in the Declaration. “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.” Mr. Berliner derives his rights from the Declaration, due to the brave men who fought and died for this country. Maybe he will remember that before he tries to eviscerate the Declaration of Independence again.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 6, 2007. Read the original PDF.