Historical Documents:Declaration of Independence: “all Men are created equal”: words we’ve heard many times. Some people take out the word men or add the words “and women”. I don’t believe that changes the meaning one bit, because the word “men” means “human kind” (although this can be debated). I think people focus too much on the word “Men” and miss a very important concept here.

The renaissance brought with it a popular idealogy we call “humanism” today. This says that the individual and/or the human race has the ability to determine for themselves truth and falsehood. You can follow this ideaology through it’s historical course and see that ultimately it has a greater meaning than cannot be summed up into a paragraph. It has evolved into the secular society we live in today.

One of the strongest oposing world views came about with the reformation. This is the movement that started when Martin Luther and other like thinking Christians divided from the Catholic Church and created the protestant churches of today. The Reformation in a nutshell says that the Christian Bible and it’s examples of the early church are soley sufficient for us to find the truth we need about ourselves, God and the world.

It may not be obvious, but this way of thinking gave birth to what we in America hold closest to our hearts. If we belive that the Bible is true, we can accept that all people are equal in the eyes of God. That despite different talents, gifts and our position in life we all are equal. This ideaology fought against the concept that a priest or a monarch had some special priveledge or right that made them higher than others.

So I’ve already indicated that the society we live in currently is leaning greatly towards a humanistic point of view. I think we’re already seeing a swing back towards the elitist concept that states we are not all equal, but our talents (evident by our success) or our looks indicate our value. Therefore those who succeed by either providence (circumstances), their own efforts or whatever and those who are physically beautiful are “better” than others. People who are not financially successful are merely of poor stock and are less meaningful.

This makes sense, because when you reject the God of the Bible, the only reason to uphold Biblical Values is habit. We’re seeing that as our society becomes more and more secular, people are breaking away from the habits they once had.

How can a person who does not believe that we were created (i.e. some being [God] created us) believe that we were created equal?