Why there is no such thing as a “Crime against Humanity”
Human rights literally do not exist! Human beings, or some self appointed representatives of the human species have come together to decide on a number of rights which are to be applied to every human being because in their opinions, some of these things are just blatantly obvious and it is better for societies if these rights are in place.
These rights are so important and sacrosanct to human society, that even the most avowed of new atheist who have taught their flocks to be rational human beings who think about supernatural claims take them as a given and in fact base their rejection of the God of the Bible (and in the case of the more courageous among them, the Quran) on their transgressions of these rights. Why would they command killing of other human beings?
Killing another human being is just plain wrong isn’t it? It is obvious. Why would they choose one tribe of people, e.g. Israel or Arabians, over another, is that not discrimination? Is it not, to paraphrase the American declaration of independence, self-evident that all men are equal? This atheistic or secularist presupposition involves a supernatural claim, something which even the declaration presupposes.
Does the claim that human beings are equal have any basis in objective reality? If it does, what is it? If it doesn’t, why should we take it seriously and deem it to be true? Now note what the declaration of independence says, all men are created equal and again, men are endowed with inalienable rights by their creator! Without a supernatural act of creation serving from a supernatural creator, there is no underlying basis for all men to be equal. It is a religious statement, not a rational one. One which no new atheist has bothered to interrogate.
Human rights have their roots in the Christian tradition. The church fathers reasoned that if human beings are made in the image of God and God is by nature the most free of all beings, then man is created free. So there goes the basis for ending slavery, a religious basis. The right to a fair hearing has also been traced to God who before judging Adam, says to him, “Where are you? What have you done?”, a fair chance to plead his case before the verdict. The right to life goes back to the God’s declaration that anybody who sheds a man’s blood should have his own blood shed specifically because man is made in the image of God, (Genesis 9:6). You cannot talk about human rights on a basis that is not Christian. They simply do not exist.
If human rights do not exist, then crimes against humanity, which are an egregious breach of these human rights also does not exist. Let us investigate the term, “Crime against humanity” for a minute. What do you notice?
Is it not weird that “humanity” by definition encompasses every psychopath, every liar, every murderer, every rapist, every paedophile on the planet? They are human beings as well. The Islamic terrorist who believes it is his God given right to kill everybody who disagrees with his religion is also a human being. Hitler was a human being, Stalin was a human being, Osama Bin Laden was a human being, if the crime is really against humanity as a whole, why is the humanity of the aforementioned class of people and people mentioned above excluded from the standard of humanity?
The answer is there is something higher than humanity which is being appealed to as a standard. By the nature and definition of the term, this must necessarily be the case. Not only that, despite all the different shades and hues of humanity, it seems to be implied that this standard is universal as well! So there are cultures where men beat women and the women see nothing wrong with it, there are cultures that find it normal to marry off their young girls to adult men (who have intercourse with them) or that find female genital mutilation normal. “Humanity” again must necessarily encompass the human beings from these cultures, what standard is being appealed to which of necessity overrides these cultural norms and declares them wrong?
“Crime against humanity” is a fiction, it really does not exist because it of necessity excludes the humanity of those charged under it, it appeals to a standard which is over and above humanity, a standard like, I don’t know, GOD?
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