I get the last word tonight.:smile:
Without an absolute moral law, and a moral law giver, the forefathers would have had no justification for their moral outrage towards England. It would have been mere opinion and therefore worthless. Because a moral standard exists however, they had a legitimate claim.
Moral Law is not necessarily "absolute" and as to your question alleywayzalways, I believe the original contracts among the founders were to the future peoples. I am not a seer nor mind reader nor fortune teller, but these people were dreamers, making an historical move, facing untold hardship, they may have been bargaining with the fates or their Deity...
However when two or more humans get together to begin what they hope is a legitimate cause for the future of their fellow humans, it is natural they would want to put their aims, reasons, hopes, and embryonic law into written and therefore more permanent proof than mere verbal discussion. No doubt they wished to promote it as "moral" to the public - when as a new nation nobody knew what "moral" would be. There were no "kings and/or queens" to dictate morality.
What has transpired since that beginning is how powerful the force is called:
"Freedom of responsibility". Nobody to make excuses to - we are on our own - free to fail or succeed - tremendous pressure, but creates a bountiful life for all
who choose to take the challenge.
I hardly think God was the only "divining" force of all the men, some were not religious at all but adventurers and warriors.
I believe their promise was freedom from or "of" government which has now been ripped from the hearts of many who still believe in the original Constitution. I have learned the kernal of wisdom was the belief in equality of humanity and the right to pursue a plentiful life of satisfaction (or happiness).
The ages have changed many hearts, along with new ideas encountered from open and healthy immigration of people who have lived under tyranny, and a burgeoning population eager to exercise the freedoms promised (previously anyway).
Where the nation is headed or what the future holds may be curtailment of some freedoms because the wealth (not only monetary but fruitful exercise of individuality), is being eroded as a response to a deeply divided two-pronged ideology of thought for the nation as a "whole" (which it is not at the present time).
I hope it will survive - too many depend upon its survival. Personally I will always be grateful the frightening tradition of "royal" has never been introduced...therefore allowing simple countrymen and women to become royal in their own rights.