People want a benevolent power to save them

The reason people want the Government to solve the problems of the world is that, in their hearts, they understand that there is a benevolent power in the universe. But they don't want that power to be the God of the Bible so they settle for it being the Government. They will gladly give up their freedom to drive at whatever speed they believe is safe but they won't bow down to the creator who made them and everything they know. They will gladly give up the freedom to shop with plastic bags, eat at places that give toys in their meals, but they won't tolerate prayer in school.

The foundation of the Declaration of Independence is that the purpose of government is to "secure" the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those rights were given to mankind not by government but by God. Without God, where did these rights come from? Virtually all of the signers of that document believed in God. There were prayers during the formation of that document - despite many being deists. Ben Franklin himself - a self described believer in God but not necessarily a Christian, at least on one occasion, stopped the proceedings at a particularly intense debate to call for prayer.

I believe that it can be shown that the increase in regulations (many of which are absurd) over the past 100 years is in direct proportion to the anti-prayer and separation of church/state rhetoric.

But the world is so much more connected now. Are the libertarians right? I worry what would happen if we just did away with, say, half our laws. People wouldn't be able to cope. Our whole legal system is bent away from personal responsibility. I think it is just as hard to reverse that trend. Prime examples: a guy shows up at a hospital and is told "sorry, you didn't plan ahead and save money or prepare some type of insurance, we can't treat you". Or a girl shows up at Planned Parenthood and they tell her that she's the one that got pregnant and therefore, she needs to have the baby.

I know I'm rambling a bit. Somehow, I believe there's a connection but I'm out of time so I'll leave this for now and try to connect the two ideas later. :)