We built a great western civilization largely on the basis of ideology. Chief among them, natural rights. The most beautiful and famous declaration of this ideology is in the Declaration of Independence: &quot;We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. [...] But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.&quot;<p>This itself is an evolution and addition to much older Christian ideas about human dignity, care for the poor, love of fellow man, and duty to do good.