Social Justice's Case for a Creator

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

This quote is something with which we all ought to be familiar, as it is the very core of our nation and our united fight for equality, justice, and truth. But even if an individual does not practice a religion or subscribe to a mode of thought that acknowledges a realm beyond our own understanding and experience, that individual most definitely has a belief system that, at its core, acknowledges some base equality across all humanity.

As we’ve seen in recent weeks with the riots, protests, and looting nationwide, humanity most definitely aches for justice. And, to my knowledge, no other animal has the capacity for rationality and the ability to recognize injustice as we do. But what actually would unify and grant equality to a race so diverse if not some creative being?

Had man simply evolved (and that evolution not have been begun by a higher power), then why would there be a need for justice at all? In a Darwinian world, there would be no use for justice and no reason for it; the strongest would survive and no one else. There would definitely be inequality there, just as there is an inequality between lions and zebras. Lions eat zebras and there’s nothing the zebras can do to stop their demise. They can’t have a dialogue with the lions, they can’t pass new legislation, they can’t protest in the streets—hell, they don’t even have streets!

Lions and zebras and fish and sharks and whales and dolphins and wolves and bears and muskrats all evolved unequally, yet somehow man has this notion that all men are equal.

The acute reader may object, “But lions and zebras are different species! Humanity is one specie. You’re comparing apples to oranges.” To which I would respond, “You are right in saying so, but it is natural for nature to be at odds with itself. Bucks duel with bucks, and lions and hyenas hate each other.”

Watch at least a portion of the video linked above: is there any discussion that takes place between the lions and hyenas? Do they want to share food with the other group? No? Why? Because they’re irrational animals.

Man, which I will use interchangeably with humanity, has this irrational faculty which Aristotle says is, “not peculiar to man,” but also has another element that is unique to man and “in a manner participates in rational principle” (Nicomachean Ethics, 1.13, Aristotle). The very fact that that can be written—and subsequently understood—is a testament to its veracity. No other animal, not even a monkey or other primate, with whom we have the most in common, could consider things on such a high plane.

Man is a rational animal. He can understand when he has been wronged, and seek to correct that wrong through ways more sophisticated than all other animals. If man “were not created equal, [he was] certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man” (What I Saw in America, Chapter 19, G.K. Chesterton).

It is impossible for democracy to exist among irrational beings, because democracy requires four things, as laid out by political scientist Larry Diamond: a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; the active participation of the people in politics and civic life; protection of the rights of all citizens; and a rule of law which applies equally to all citizens.

There is nothing even remotely close to any sort of government outside of humanity. No lions or zebras or hyenas have a code of law, and yet this code of law which we enjoy relies on the fact that we are all equal. If we weren’t, surely everything would collapse and we would live in a world where the strong and powerful are the ones in control, as is typical of nature and the food chain.

But that is not the case for humanity. Humanity is the outlier of the rest of the world. When a person seeks justice, what are they doing but attempting to bring order to an otherwise chaotic world whose mode of existence is contrary to everything instinctual?

The tragedy is that we are a world past a deity and the “use” of any god is foreign and contrived and outdated. So what? Religion has served its purpose in the past to keep people in line, but now we are all educated and can think for ourselves, define truth for ourselves. But if we lose a universal truth, we will lose a universal justice, we will lose a universal equality, and we will descend to irrational existence among all the other animals from which we initially rose.