On Big Hollywood, Jeremy D. Boreing writes about America’s founders.
Of the four claims about God and Americans outlined in the Declaration, it was the idea that man was made by God to be free that was the most radical, and which was so pivotal. The British press mocked it openly. It is, however, at the very heart of the founding ideology. If it is God who made men free, then Liberty is not a pragmatic imperative; it is a moral one. Governments that encroach on that liberty are not only violating the preferences of the governed, they are violating the very intention of God for government. For the Founders, this idea would fundamentally redefine the relationship between government and citizen. Man does not exist to be governed; governments exist to protect man’s freedom. Man does not owe government anything, other than what is necessary to aid that government in securing his basic rights. Likewise, government does not owe man anything other than protection from those who would intrude upon his freedom, be it his fellow citizen, foreign enemies, or the government itself.
America was fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. The right place was being part of the Scottish enlightenment, rather than the French. The Scottish enlightenment embraced Christianity, and so had a moral foundation–or rather a foundation for its morals, understanding that morals are not the result of science but of revelation.
The right time was before the Enlightenment degenerated into Scientism. The Scientists thought they could “do” virtue on purely rational grounds. Millions of corpses in all over Europe, and in the old Soviet Union and China, bear witness to the failure of that vision.
All part of what Hunter Baker says in The End of Secularism.
I mentioned his book in the comments of the post linked above.