evidence: There are two competing views on natural law. The first is that laws or rights are given to us by a divine being. The second is that we have rights because we’re human. [...] Human rights — natural law — are discoverable by reason. This is most certainly not a divine idea of natural law. Jefferson also said in 1774 that "a free people claim their rights" — they are "not a gift of the chief magistrate." I think that would also include they are not a gift from God. People have to assert those rights. [...] Edmund Burke wrote: "In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole." In Common Sense, Thomas Paine wrote about the importance of "securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things, the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience."