Natural Rights

A strange line on the evolution controversy, from a self-confessed agnostic:

In principle, this appears to be a harmless intellectual debate, where science and theology weave and blur. But, in fact, the controversy affects the very roots of Western civilization and, in the long run, can have tremendous consequences on a political level.

The whole philosophical and juridical structure that supports liberal democracy hinges on the existence of a superior being from whom emanate the ”natural rights” that protect individuals from the actions of the state or from the will of other people. If the premise of God’s existence disappears, the theory of the existence of natural rights is automatically eliminated and the door is flung open to all kinds of abuses.

I believe it was Immanuel Kant who first formulated the decisive refutation of this position, with his famous quip, nein, das ist scheisse.