{{Cquote|At least three ingredients are critical to the validity of human rights. First, human rights require universal moral norms, since they are claims that every human makes upon every other human being. No person, non-state group, or political regime may torture another person or deliberately take the life of a civilian, for instance. These claims must be true for everyone, or they are not human rights.
The second ingredient is human dignity – the dignity—the inestimable worth of each and every person. It is because human beings have this worth that they can justifiably demand that certain kinds of actions never be performed against them.
The third ingredient, which philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff describes brilliantly in his book, ''Justice'', is what might be called the “trump card” status of human rights. To say that a person has a right is to say that her claim cannot be overridden by simply balancing it against a competing basket of goods. Even if governments can realize great gains in war by targeting civilians or torturing suspects, they must refrain from these actions if they are respectful of human rights...
What traditions of thought, then, assert universal norms, human dignity, and trump card status? Religions holding that God revealed certain commandments to be binding on everyone, essential for human flourishing and dignity, and admitting little room for violation or exception are strong candidates.
Theologians and philosophers in these traditions have derived a right to life from the commandment to not murder, a right to property from the commandment to not steal, and so on. In these religions, the ingredients for human rights are cemented in an eternal and unchanging being who takes an interest in every person...
It is no accident, therefore, that historically, most of the great articulators of human (or natural) rights have been theists: the early Christian fathers; medieval canon lawyers; the Spanish scholastics; Enlightenment thinkers like [[John Locke]] and [[Immanuel Kant]]; [[Woodrow Wilson]]; most of the architects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; [[Jacques Maritain]]; and contemporary Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers like John Finnis, [[David Novak]], and Abdullahi An-Na’im.
Likewise, most of the great deniers of human and natural rights have been atheists: the philosophers [[David Hume]], [[Jeremy Bentham]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]; [[Karl Marx]] and [[Vladimir Lenin]]; and the [[Postmodernism|postmodernist]] pioneers, [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Richard Rorty]].
Just ask history’s most influential thinkers: [[God]] and human rights really do go together.<ref>Philpott, Daniel [Professor of Political Science and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame] (May 28, 2014). [https://www.openglobalrights.org/no-human-rights-without-god/ "No human rights without God"] by Daniel Philpott, Professor of Political Science and Peace Studies at Notre DameOpen Global Rights </ref>}}
=== Premiere Christianity website on atheism and human rights ===