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Breanna McOmber

History 1700-54

Signature Assignment Question #3:

In a world of men, some form of God seems to pop up everywhere. There never seems to

be a civilization without a God and how can you have a government without a civilization for it

to govern. Thus, a government and religious terms are bound to mix every now and then. It

seems to be a hot topic to argue in the world today. There are the more well-known religious

references in political matters and articles such as on our currency, in our Pledge and even all the

way back to our Declaration of Independence. More specifically the words endowed by their

creator. Which I am going to focus on more specifically who wrote those words and why the

way they did.

I must first point out that endowed by their creator is only a section of the full

sentence

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... Declaration of Independence

We must also consider looking into what the word creator meant to the person who wrote

the declaration, and that my friends, we all know as Thomas Jefferson. He had this idea of the

deity. The concept that there wasnt a God that continuously acted throughout our lives, but more

of a Creator who created us and then left everything in our hands. Below is a statement made by

The Washington Post,


some argue that it (the declaration) just refers to a watchmaker God who set up the

universe and a natural order from which natural rights are inferred and then left it alone.

In my initial understanding when I read the first sentences of the Declaration, I first paid

in mind the era that it had been created. The Declaration of Independence was a declaration for a

new government and how it was going to be governed. This is during the American Revolution

where all the Americans had only known government in the form of a birthright tyranny with a

king over his subjects. The beginning of the Declaration first states that all men are created equal

and such shall be governed not that of a King but a man chosen by the public. Then it goes to

say, they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, Jefferson was pointing

out that the crown wasnt their Creator and that all people have initial and equal rights as a man

from the point they were created.

Also, I believe Jefferson was wise in picking the word Creator because it generalizes a

God figure for all beliefs. After all Jefferson was more in favor of deism but was sympathetic to

moral Christianity and other religions, but he used this word as a form of enlightenment

against the Crown. Men created equal, by a creator, who with create their own government.
WORK CITED:

http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us/videos/declaration-of-independence - 3

minute video, mostly referenced info from the last minute.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/07/05/the-declaration-of-

independence-and-god/?utm_term=.94988287669a - the first paragraph

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/age-jefferson-and-madisonreligion/essays/thomas-

jefferson-and-deism - first five paragraphs

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