Equality denies the individual. By pushing for equality we are denying the truth that no two people are actually the same. Some people are superior than others at certain things due to genetics, upbringing, nation, culture, circumstances and free will. To push for equality is the deny the individual the truth of who they are as a person. It denies accountability to one's actions and demeans an individual's free will to suggest any superiority is due to factors outside of his control instead of his own choices.
One of the biggest issues with pushing for equality is that is denies the truth and thus sets peoples expectations entirely wrong. It creates a blind spot in people's perception of reality. One thousand years ago a person may have prayed to God to save his sick son and gave his sick son herbs. The person may have mistakenly believed it was God who saved his son rather than the herbs. The next time his son got sick, he only prayed and his son died because he did not give his son the herbs. This is the blind spot that strict adherence to religion caused humanity. We are creating this sort of blind spot again with the push for equality. When say a white man beats a black woman at something, instead of recognizing this man's superior ability due to all the factors, people instead blame "whiteness" and "the patriarchy" as oppressive factors thus denying one's perspective to see the truth. These "oppressive" factors have become a new religion and are creating new blind spots in peoples perception which is ushering in a new "Dark Age" in regards to assessing the actual true factors in superiority. The more we pursue this as a species the more we push for mediocrity and usher in this new "Dark Age".
I can't think of a single thing in society that is as grievous as this push for equality.
I think the idea of being "created equal" means equal in God's eyes: having some essential worth. To say we're "created equal" is recognizing the ideal of treating each other as having that basic value.
Of course all men aren't created the same, and so aren't equals in many important ways beyond that.
Equal in God's eyes is also false. God clearly has favourites among men just read one or two chapters of the bible and tell me men are viewed equal by God, lmao. That's a joke. All of these "men are created equal". Men are "equal under God" are just made up leftist BS. They are not factually correct, at all.
If you want God's favour then be a moral man. If you're an immoral fuck, God doesn't value you the same as other men. God pretty much says as much in the way he treats different groups of men in the Bible.
No human has value simply for existing. All value is derived from that which another places on them. No two humans have the same value, period.
I realize many people who are pro-choice try to use some angle here to suggest why abortion is illegal. It has nothing to do with value though. God says don't murder and that includes babies. That's it. Abortion is immoral and has nothing to do with value of men.
Interesting cos I've never thought about this idea as a leftist thing, but I get the connection you make. Let me put the idea a different way.
The value that is the same is the potential of all men to do the things you're talking about: to be moral, find favor with God, etc. And the idea goes that that value exists because we're created in God's image, so there is something essentially divine about every human. That fact is what allows potential grace, forgiveness, etc. for all.
What people do with it from there goes every possible way, with different outcomes. So I'm not saying everyone is specifically valuable, or deserving of praise, or whatever, just for existing.
Beyond that essential value we can talk about behavior, skills, morals, etc., and I'm more or less with you on the rest.
I agree with you. I think the importance of what we're talking about is simply that all men deserve a chance because they are created in God's image so all men have the potential, like you say, to be valuable as men. One shouldn't assume to know how someone will be without giving them that chance.
However, I would also like to point out that as our knowledge has grown we can much more accurately predict the probabilities of people's outcomes at birth and the factors that are at play in this. Even still, this isn't necessarily a good reason to take action against someone but I would also argue it can be a good reason too. God has often instructed his people to kill all the adult men of conquered tribes, why? Because we know that you're unlikely to change men once they've solidified their value systems so killing them is the best way to ensure the sanctity of your own culture for example. Killing the women and children might not necessarily be desirable; however, sometimes God has instructed that as well because we know that some races do have a predisposition to certain behaviors.