Created Equal

by Dr. Rick Flanders

Most Americans are very familiar with the section of our Declaration of Independence which speaks of “all men” as having been “created equal” and having been “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”  These assertions are at the very core of the philosophy of government upon which our republic was built.  They also are essential doctrines in the American view of human rights and individual freedom.  What most of us have not noticed about these statements, however, is their relation to the belief that God is our Creator.  We do notice that creation and the Creator are referenced in this section of our founding document, but most have never considered the important connection between belief in divine creation and belief in equal rights for all men.  Of course, the debate between Biblical Creationism and Biological Evolution continues to occupy a prominent spot on the national stage, producing both the passage and repeal of state laws and school policies, as well as heated arguments at board meetings and public rallies.  But the opponents of creationism either fail or refuse to acknowledge the role this debate will play in the future of freedom.

What does it mean that “all men are created equal”?  This question has been controversial almost since the words were written down.  Certainly these words cannot mean that every human being is endowed with equal intelligence, equal abilities, equal opportunities, equal physical strength and health, or equal motivation and drive.  If the statement did mean this, it would be obviously false.  The argument of the Declaration is that men are of equal worth and deserve equal standing before the law.  This concept points necessarily to the role of Deity as the Creator of all men.  To Whom do all men have equal value and worth?  Why should all men, regardless of the class or race into which each one was born, be afforded equal privileges and rights before the state?  For the founders of our nation, the answer to these questions is found in belief that God is man’s Creator.  We all are loved and valued equally by Him, and therefore deserve equal treatment.

Another fact that is not fully appreciated by most Americans is the fact that the theory of evolution has always been entwined with racism.  Actually it is inherently racist.  Charles Darwin’s great book, The Origin of Species, was subtitled The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.  Some of the most notorious examples of genocide were perpetrated on the premise that certain people were inferior because of some quirk in evolution.  This can be historically proven about the massacre of the Tasmanian aborigines by the English, the extermination of the Herero tribesmen in German Southwest Africa before World War I, as well as the Jewish Holocaust in World War II.  The gradual development of human races from lower to higher types justifies the classification of men into unequal categories.  Modern evolutionists want to restrict this grouping to the ancient past, but such restrictions were not followed by earlier evolutionists.  Certainly, at the very least, the theory implies the possibility that the human family today is made up of individuals that differ widely in their value to the world.  Of course, men vary in their abilities or size or strength, but may we qualify men as more or less advanced or significant based on such things?  In other words, the less intelligent or culturally sophisticated are regarded by evolutionists as more animal-like and in a sense less human.  The minds that gave us the Declaration of Independence would dispute the idea that human beings have less value if they are not as smart or speak a less complicated language or live simpler lives.  But this business is an integral part of evolution.  The only way to conceive of all men as equal is to see them as equally loved by the Creator-God.

Both Moses and Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18 and Matthew 22:39).  This divine command affirms that all men are created equal, that is, equally cherished by God.  The truth is that these words from the Bible had such an impact on our forefathers’ generation that they incorporated this concept into their views of just government.  Belief in the Creator-God of the Bible was crucial to the establishment of human freedom as a foundational principle of our republic.  People are not equal in any understandable sense except as they are equally valued by their Creator.  If they have no Creator, there is no reason for their rights to be equally recognized and respected.

The Creation-Evolution controversy is more than a debate between science and religion.  It is touches the fundamental concept behind the American passion for human freedom.  Societies that reject God and specifically those that reject the idea of God as our Creator soon abandon any commitment they ever had to individual liberty and equal rights.  Without question, nineteenth-century Darwinism gave birth to twentieth-century Fascism, Naziism, and Communism.  If godless evolution is followed here, eventually the rationale behind our freedom will fade and freedom itself will die in America.