The Declaration of Independence is wrong. People don’t start out equal. Some have great advantages and some have great challenges. Some put great effort into enriching the world. Others squander their time and talents big and small. There are only two ways that I can imagine equality among humans. The first is infinite worth. But even infinities aren’t equal. The set of all natural numbers (the infinity most of us think of) doesn’t correspond to the set of all rational numbers. Rational numbers are a bigger set on even a basic mathematical level. And that isn’t even asking the question whether humans are infinite at all which I doubt. The other possibility that every individual human has equal worth is if we are worth nothing. This is an unpleasant thought but at least a philosophically coherent one.
The other problem with equal worth is that those who enrich the world become more worthy and those that squander what they have become more worthless. Even in the unlikely event that you could convince me that humans are created equal it still makes no sense that we stay that way. All the evidence that I have demonstrates that a lifetime of choice results in very different results between individuals. So am I saying I’m better than you? Perhaps. But I tend to think I am part of the mediocre middle that is born with mild advantages and disadvantages and works very hard not to lose ground as death approaches. I suspect you my gentle reader are also part of that mediocre middle with me. But maybe we are equally worthless. You decide.
Latter Day Sinner 