Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Giacinto Gimignani[/caption]Human rights are recognized here and elsewhere in the world. These human rights include the right to life, liberty, and property. In these modern times, there are various safeguards against the arbitrary and whimsical deprivation of these rights.
In our Constitution, for example, Sec. 1, Art. III provides, "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws."
Due process of law, in the classic definition by Daniel Webster, is a "law which hears before it condemns, proceeds upon inquiry and renders judgment only after trial."
The religious among us say that the concept of due process dates as far back as to the time of Adam and Eve. In Genesis, we first heard of the story of Adam and Eve.
God forbade the couple from eating the fruit tree "that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die” (Genesis 3:2). But then, the serpent tempted Eve, the story continues, and Eve succumbed to the temptation. She ate the fruit from the forbidden tree. "She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves."
"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of theLord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
It became obvious from this point that even God observed due process. This God is an omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God. He is an all-powerful God, all-present God, and all-knowing God. If that God in the Genesis is all that He is, why did he bother to ask Adam's whereabouts. The reason is simple. He wants to hear before He condemns.
Then God proceeds upon inquiry. When Adam answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid,” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Adam said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” After hearing from both Adam and Eve, God rendered His judgment. He punished first the serpent: "You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life." Next, He turned to Eve and meted out this punishment, among others: "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe. " Lastly, to Adam he said, among others, "through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life."
This is not to say, however, that human rights in general and the right to due process in particular came from God. According to James Nickel:
"Attributing human rights to God's commands may give them a secure status at the metaphysical level, but in a very diverse world it does not make them practically secure. Billions of people do not believe in the God of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. If people do not believe in God, or in the sort of god that prescribes rights, then if you want to base human rights on theological beliefs you must persuade these people of a rights-supporting theological view. This is likely to be even harder than persuading them of human rights. Legal enactment at the national and international levels provides a far more secure status for practical purposes."
Nevertheless, despite the protection given by the law against arbitrary exercise of power, however, those in authority, in their anxiousness to stop crime and put criminals behind bars, forget too often that before one could deprive another of his rights, due process must be observed first.
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