Ross Douthat: "What are Universal Human Rights if not a Metaphysical Principle?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Tzx7UW0fc

Author Ross Douthat appeared on the Bill Maher Show some years ago. He suggested concepts like "universal human rights" don't lend themselves to empirical validation. There's something metaphysical about them. Maher dismissed Douthat's observation out of hand, mumbling into his neck that "human rights are just common sense."

We're all supposed to put stock in Bill Maher's version of "common sense"? Does he hurl his precepts like thunderbolts from Mt. Olympus like Zeus?

I have a proposition for Maher. Invite libertarian atheist rights-theists Stefan Molyneux, Walter Block, the Ayn Rand Institute's Yaron Brook, and prolific Facebook poster Con Duper for a panel discussion on his show. He can rest assured "religion" does not poison their thinking. Then submit the following topics for discussion:

Reproductive Rights: Yea or Nay?
Even in the Case of Sex-Selective Abortion?
Mass Immigration Everywhere: a Fundamental Human Right?
Open Borders for Israel, Too?
Collateral Damage: Crime Against Humanity?
Even when the U.S. or Israel does it?

Will our super-smart, reason-driven, common-sense mavens come to near unanimous agreement on the burning issues of the day? Or will they resort to insults, epithet-hurling, and recriminations? Anybody taking bets? I know where I'm putting my money.