All Men Are Created Equal

Thomas Martin

Thomas Martin teaches in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

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.

That we the people are endowed by God with unalienable rights is a point of contention for Americans who profess to be atheists, and rightfully so; for if to be an American was reserved for those who believed in God, then only those who believed in God would be Americans. This would be a violation of a citizen's liberty and thereby his freedom to accept or refuse God as his creator, the source of equality and the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

However, by refusing to recognize God as the Creator of man's rights, does it not necessarily follow that all men are not created equal?

It is obvious to anyone who has taught, or been a student, that students are not equal in their intellectual capacity. It is equally noticeable to anyone who coaches, participates in or is a spectator of sports, that athletes are not equal in their physical talents. Finally, it is evident to anyone who works for a living that all men are not of equal market worth nor do they have an equal accumulation of material goods.

Now imagine if Thomas Jefferson had written,

All men are reproduced equal; that they are endowed by Nature with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

And further imagine that

. . . to secure these rights of Nature, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government.

It would then be the function of government to insure that since all men are reproduced equally by Nature, they ought to be so treated. Schools would insure that all students were equally educated, sports would establish rules to equalize the level of play, and government would ensure the equal distribution of material goods to all.

I am here reminded of the office of the "The Handicapper General" in the short story "Harrison Bergeron," by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. It is the year 2081 and everyone is equal. Those who are born unequal-with superior ability-are handicapped to insure the equality of the human race. Anyone who is perceived to be beautiful must wear a hideous mask, strong people are required to wear weights, and those with superior intellects are hampered by loud noises in their minds when they try to think.

Thomas Jefferson and his fellow signers of the Declaration of Independence, however, were not simply divorcing themselves from the King of England to establish a government of the people, by the people, and for people; they separated from the English crown to establish a nation. They founded this nation upon the ideal "That all men are created equal."

That "all men are created equal" is a theological claim. It is God who has created us equal before Him in that all men are equal in their claim for justice, thereby necessitating government to insure all are treated justly.

A nation is not a club established for a select group of people who share some common interest they wish to preserve through a governing body that excludes anyone who is not like them. A nation is a family whose members are united under a moral idea as brothers and sisters in a common cause.

In an analogous sense, God loves His creation and what makes man lovable is that God has first loved man. It is not man loving his neighbor that makes him lovable; it is not the government enforcing us to celebrate our diversity that makes man tolerable, it is God that makes our neighbor lovable and we are free to love our neighbors or not.

Recently a freethinking college professor noted that when Thomas Jefferson wrote, "All men are created equal" he meant only white males. Such a claim reduces Jefferson's universal claim to an exclusive claim. This means that Thomas Jefferson did not know how to use an adjective to qualify his statements. "Man," as it is used in the Declaration of Independence, is an inclusive term, meaning mankind, male and female, and it is not until the most recent creation of politically correct grammar that anyone who could read English would have thought it otherwise.

Given that all men are created equal, any one who discriminates against a person because of his race, sex or creed fails at being an American.

Martin Luther King, understanding exactly what Thomas Jefferson meant, delivered his speech of August 28, 1963, on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D. C. saying,

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

Thus Martin Luther King ends with,

And when this happens, and when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Unless, of course, we are just animals.

And that would mean the end of America. ?

Dr. Martin can be reached at martint@unk.edu.