For the record, I never invoke my religion without pointing out that:
My church is the only church that willingly pays its taxes (to fund your roads and transportation infrastructure); and
My church is the only church to offer a money-back guarantee if I get left behind during the rapture.
If your church doesn’t have these two traits, your deity can’t possibly be the One True God.
+1 to that comment!
Note I used the term 'natural rights" not God given rights.
The Constitution doesn’t separate church and state by language. That is an interpretation of the language;
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
I fail to see what unsafe drivers have to do with forcing people to wear seat belts or motorcycle helmets. I have heard the argument that failure to wear a helmet leaves you with disasterous injuries you can;t pay the cost of making the state pay for you or raising the price of insurance.
I think it is more likely to leave you dead which is much cheaper for everyone else.
None of these safety features save lives, they only prolong them. The mortality rate of living is pretty close to 100%
Yes, you used the term “natural rights,” which conveniently skirts around the issue of their source, but you also quoted the Declaration of Independence, which describes them as being
Why distance yourself from your own quote? Why would you quote it if you don’t agree with it?
The NHTSA disagrees with you:
https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812388
That said, I’d be fine with getting rid of helmet and seatbelt laws provided it were established that the government and insurance companies get reimbursed by the rider, or his estate, for costs related to not wearing them. This would carry the obvious requirement that the rider either place a large sum of money into a trust, or buy special “I do stupid things” insurance.
“Creator” need not be interpreted as God.
I’d use the same logic I use to address the growth of electric cars. The average age of vehicles on the road is 11 years. If we start buying NOthing but EV’s (or substitute autonomous cars) today, it would take 11 years for to convert half of the fleet to EV’s (or autonomous cars). It would take another 10-15 years to convert the other half only if the product offering is just too good to pass up.
Ain’t gonna happen for quite a while 'cause autonomous cars aren’t available.
Likely certain cities will outlaw human controlled cars - New York, Boston, maybe or Chicago, maybe Los Angeles. Then we will see a few states join in - California and New York, maybe, but the Feds never will because of all the states in the middle of the country will block it. The grand experiment will play out one way or another in those states and then we will see the outcome.
So @Mustangman is saying these rights were endowed by his parents?
…or aliens who brought humans to Earth? That’s my territory, as that fits my church’s dogma.
+1
Whether most people understand this reality or not, under the current structure, ALL of us are paying for the extreme medical costs involved with the extended care of motorcyclists and motorists who chose to ignore both gov’t regulations and common sense in regard to the use of safety equipment, and who are now essentially “vegetables”.
No, natural rights. Granted simply by birth, not by anybody or deity.
Freedom OF religion can also be interpreted as freedom FROM religion.
That still sounds like a faith-based argument, or perhaps circular reasoning, because it doesn’t actually identify a source.
My people believe our rights were bestowed upon us by our Yeti ancestors.
Well, we’re talking about what Jefferson was saying, and as Jefferson was not a Christian it’s unlikely he was referring to a specific god. It’s more likely that he was referring to “whatever the individual citizens think created them.”
But from my perspective, yeah, their “parents,” by which I mean the human race in general. Humans invented the concept of morality and then came up with the rules thereof.
There’s nothing in nature that guarantees any animal’s right to anything. We go around talking about how we have the “right” to life, but then when a tiger eats a zookeeper we don’t charge the tiger with murder because we recognize that the very concept of “rights” is a human invention.
At any rate, the “right to drive” is not enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Nor is it mentioned in the document that actually counts, the Constitution (because the DoI does not have the power of law). There is no “right to drive,” whether you mean “natural rights” or “legally-secured rights.”
No, not at all a faith based argument.
Even belief in rights granted by a deity is circular by your reasoning. Who created the deity? Or who created the Yeti ancestors? Depends on how far you want to stop backing up.
You take your chances and pay your dues, seems obesity is another expensive condition, it probably costs more than motorcycle related injuries, now a law for BMI?
Across the country, obesity-related health problems cost $147 billion to $210 billion each year, according to the State of Obesity. Obesity is also associated with diminished productivity on the job and to work absenteeism costing the country $4.3 billion per year, according to the report.Nov 2, 2015
Ir can be, but I don’t believe that was the intent of the founding fathers.
Tom and Ray would have disagreed with you. Did you never hear the show where they postulated that fat people die early, create job openings and save us a lot of money by not collecting much social security or pensions and not clogging up nursing homes like skinny people who live too long.
I just found out I am now clinically obese, I didn’t used to be and my weight has stayed the same but I have lost 3" in height.
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Guess I was lucky. I had to creators - my mom and dad. 
Here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, driving is considered a privilege not a right. And that privilege can be revoked anytime at the discretion of the commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles.Therefore, the whole “right to drive” is a moot point, at least in the great commonwealth of Virginia. Are any or all of the other states/commonwealths the same:question:
It wasn’t I who said that.
I know that and I meant no offense to anybody with my post, but how come that a quote, quoted from Your post can change name?, In Your post, it was from Shadowfax and in my post, it looks like it was a quote from You!!!
I can see this one is going nowhere good. My only contribution will be to say that I would be a member of the church of @Whitey, but, to quote Groucho Marx (which everyone should do from time to time), “I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER”