Wesley Smith is complaining about the movement toward “rights” for inanimate things like rivers. He wants to reserve “rights” only for humans.
In the first place, “rights” are a recent and destructive invention. God never said anything about “rights”. In all the old scriptures, God talks about duties, not “rights”.
In the second place, you’ll never get the demons to back off. Instead we should encourage them to go all the way. If rivers have “rights”, then rivers should also have legal responsibilities.
Old rulers recognized the duty side, not the “rights” side. Cyrus of Persia was pissed when a river drowned his favorite horse. He executed the river, ordering his soldiers to divert the flow into the sand.
Our previous sane approach to rivers was also based on duties without saying the word. When a river proved to be a habitual criminal, we imprisoned it in a dam and forced it to work for us through irrigation and electricity.
We should also go all the way with “corporate persons”. Our existing legal framework gives corporations the “rights” of persons but doesn’t punish them like persons. If we balanced “rights” with duties, we’d punish monopolists for murder, and punish LBOs for kidnapping.
Polistra's Mill 