I thought the listed passage from The Sea-Wolf made my point clear. Here is the key point again;
But,—and there it is,—we want to live and move, though we have no reason to, because it happens that it is the nature of life to live and move, to want to live and move. If it were not for this, life would be dead. It is because of this life that is in you that you dream of your immortality. The life that is in you is alive and wants to go on being alive for ever.
"Natural Law" gives me the right for Survival. The Theory of Evolution/Survival of the Fittest lays out the environment/circumstances which control/modulate this but the instinct to Survive is inborn in all living organisms.
Another passage from The Sea-Wolf which drives home the point;
[Hump] “God made you well,” I said.
[Wolf Larsen] “Did he?” he answered. “I have often thought so myself, and wondered why.”
“Purpose—” I began.
“Utility,” he interrupted. “This body was made for use. These muscles were made to grip, and tear, and destroy living things that get between me and life. But have you thought of the other living things? They, too, have muscles, of one kind and another, made to grip, and tear, and destroy; and when they come between me and life, I out-grip them, out-tear them, out-destroy them. Purpose does not explain that. Utility does.”
“It is not beautiful,” I protested.
“Life isn’t, you mean,” he smiled. “Yet you say I was made well.
...
“Stability, equilibrium,” he said, relaxing on the instant and sinking his body back into repose. “Feet with which to clutch the ground, legs to stand on and to help withstand, while with arms and hands, teeth and nails, I struggle to kill and to be not killed. Purpose? Utility is the better word.”
Not quite. The "is-ought" problem has to do with deriving "moral oughts" from "factual is'" which is quite rightly untenable (independent of any specific worldview).
The instinct to Survive has nothing whatsoever to do Morality/Ethics; it is a biological imperative.
No laws of physics gives you the right to survival. You will survive if you have the physical ability to do so in a given environment. And you won’t if you don’t. Anything else is self-delusional. You can claim whatever rights you want until somebody sticks a gun in your mouth.
I am not sure what is so difficult to understand in what i have written but, let me try restating it;
The Instinct to Survive is inborn and every living organism exercises it as a "Law of Nature", but whether and how it will actually Survive is modulated by The Theory of Evolution/Survival of the Fittest. They are two different things. That instinct is what makes an organism do anything and everything to try and survive to pass on its genes.
That has nothing to do with your original “I have a right to survive”. You have no such right. You either survive or you don’t. That’s it. “Rights” are a human construct that only exists if you have the power to enforce it.
I absolutely get your point. I just disagree. And you are not getting my point: “Birth rights” doesn’t exist. It is all in your head. You might use the idea of “rights” to justify to yourself what you are doing. Others will use other made up justifications (gods, ideologies, skin colour, race etc.) But it is a made up human idea. Lions doesn’t need to appeal to its “birth right” to kill you. Evolution doesn’t care about your “birth rights”. You either survive or you don’t. That’s it.
But,—and there it is,—we want to live and move, though we have no reason to, because it happens that it is the nature of life to live and move, to want to live and move. If it were not for this, life would be dead. It is because of this life that is in you that you dream of your immortality. The life that is in you is alive and wants to go on being alive for ever.
"Natural Law" gives me the right for Survival. The Theory of Evolution/Survival of the Fittest lays out the environment/circumstances which control/modulate this but the instinct to Survive is inborn in all living organisms.
Another passage from The Sea-Wolf which drives home the point;
[Hump] “God made you well,” I said.
[Wolf Larsen] “Did he?” he answered. “I have often thought so myself, and wondered why.”
“Purpose—” I began.
“Utility,” he interrupted. “This body was made for use. These muscles were made to grip, and tear, and destroy living things that get between me and life. But have you thought of the other living things? They, too, have muscles, of one kind and another, made to grip, and tear, and destroy; and when they come between me and life, I out-grip them, out-tear them, out-destroy them. Purpose does not explain that. Utility does.”
“It is not beautiful,” I protested.
“Life isn’t, you mean,” he smiled. “Yet you say I was made well.
...
“Stability, equilibrium,” he said, relaxing on the instant and sinking his body back into repose. “Feet with which to clutch the ground, legs to stand on and to help withstand, while with arms and hands, teeth and nails, I struggle to kill and to be not killed. Purpose? Utility is the better word.”