Are all People Really Equal?

Question

Dictionary definition says that equal is everyone with the same advantages and disadvantages, however when people use it, they use it like the word means fair. Fair actually means that everyone has an equal chance at something. Equal implies that all people have the strengths and weaknesses, and if this was true, explain the handicapped people to the non-handicapped.

Which leads to the questions:

Were the founding fathers wrong in their thoughts that all men are created equal? Is there a such thing as equality among mankind? Is equality and fairness the same thing, and if so how?

Answer 1

I don't think so, by whichever definition. My sister and I are different enough that we will never be interchangeable. I don't have (or want) a fair chance at doing her job, and vice a versa. As a female engineer, I haven't met very many men I even want to be equal to.

Answer 2

Equality and fairness are not the same thing. Fairness has to do with justice, while equality has to do with one's stature in the eyes of that justice

The founding fathers meant equal in their standing before God, as men. Not in the religious sense, but in the sense that you and I, at birth, were equally entitled to all the world had to offer.

This was specifically aimed at the British class system. America was founded on the principle that we don't care what your last name is, we are not going to pass laws saying that you cannot rise to success. Granted, we're not going to raise you to it either, you have to do that on your own. But the law will not stop you. The law treats us all as having been created equal.

Of course, created equal and staying equal are two different things.

And if one of us started out lucky by being born to a rich family, in strong health, that does not change the fact that we are, in a philosophical sense, equal.

But we can prove ourselves unequal by our actions. A felon, for example, is not equal under the law to a law-abiding citizen. He loses rights, and will be treated differently.

One could argue that it's not fair. He was born poor and raised among felons. Yet, we insist that he was born equal to all men, and despite any of these hardships, he is capable of morality and dignity. When he chose otherwise, he chose wrong, and lowered himself below the rankings of the common citizen.

And fair isn't the concern here.