Declaring Our Dependence on God
In a conversation with the Back to Godhead staff, Śrīla Prabhupāda discusses the American Revolution: “The Americans say they trust in God. But without the science of God, that trust is simply fictitious. First take the science of God very seriously; then put your trust in Him. . . . They’re manufacturing their own way of governing. And that is their defect. They will never be successful. . . . There will always be revolutions—one after another. There will be no peace.”
Back to Godhead:  Thomas Jefferson put the basic philosophy of the American Revolution into the Declaration of Independence. The important men of the day who signed this document agreed that there are certain very obvious or self-evident truths, the first of which is that all men are created equal. By this they meant that all men are equal before the law and have an equal opportunity to be protected by the law.
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  Yes, in that sense men are, as you say, created equal.
BTG:  Another point in the Declaration of Independence is that all men are endowed by God with certain natural rights that cannot be taken away from them. These are the rights of life, liberty, and . . .
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  But animals also have the right to life. Why don’t animals also have the right to live? The rabbits, for instance, are living in their own way in the forest. Why does the government allow hunters to go and shoot them?
BTG:  They were simply talking about human beings.
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  Then they have no real philosophy. The narrow idea that my family or my brother is good, and that I can kill all others, is criminal. Suppose that for my family’s sake I kill your father. Is that philosophy? Real philosophy is  suḥrdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām : friendliness to all living entities. Certainly this applies to human beings, but even if you unnecessarily kill one animal, I shall immediately protest, “What non-sense are you doing?”
BTG:  The founders of America said that another natural right is the right to liberty, or freedom. Freedom in the sense that the government
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