In medieval society the king was much more than a supreme magistrate but was seen as a divine being sent from heaven to establish its laws within the kingdom. When the king was not present the divine law established by the king’s will was gone so the people lost all sense of restraint from which anarchy would occur until a new king was crowned.

The people living in this society accepted the king’s judgment in all affairs because they believed that he was a kind of deity who possessed special knowledge and wisdom that could best guide the people. The king then used that special wisdom to choose advisors, magistrates, and other government officials who knew what was best for the people. The people did not question the government because they believe the king was more endowed to make decisions over their lives than they were. This created a class of thinking elites who decided how other people were going to live and a subservient peasant class who did not believe they had the same right to reason as the king’s government had.

It may seem strange as to why anyone would accept this degraded status for themselves but since we were cavemen we always sought out a source of divine knowledge that can guide us in this world. This enlightened knowledge completely removes the possibility of human error which gives us a feeling of security in this world and the belief in this enlightened knowledge can be thought of as faith.

The idea that a leader who possesses special knowledge sent from heaven might give us great courage to overcome impossible odds such as Moses leading his people out of Egypt simply because God told him where the land of milk and honey was. A society’s faith in divine leadership might give it courage to overcome impossible odds but it is not reason nor is it freedom.

In order to illustrate this point think of a dog owner who teaches the dog how to fetch. The dog has no ability to think beyond its instinctive impulses so it can’t comprehend why it is chasing after the ball. This has allowed the dog owner to manipulate the dog’s very existence because the dog owner has the ability to reason which is something the dog can’t do.

This is why every domesticated animal will be subservient to human will. Our ability to reason has allowed us to manipulate their instinctive desires for food, water, and shelter to the point where we control every aspect of their existence. These animals will never wonder why it is complying with our demands simply because they are incapable of knowing anything beyond their primitive and instinctive impulses.

The only thing we have in common with animals is that we both receive information through our senses but what separates us from them is our ability to process that information and create new information from that process. What animals and man knew about the earth from their senses alone was that it is flat but what separated us was the fact that man was able to realize the world was round by our intellect. That intellect allowed us to analyze the information we receive through our senses and come to different conclusions that our senses alone could not tell us. The concept of our existence is shaped by our ability to reason which separates us from animals because their existence is shaped by their senses.

We may speculate from where mankind gets this ability but the mere fact that we are using that ability to debate where it comes from proves that it exist for each of us. A creationist may believe man was created in seven days so it was God who given him the ability to reason while an atheist may believe that that same ability was the byproduct of man’s evolution. No matter what you believe is responsible for your existence it is impossible to believe that any member of the same species would not have the same ability that every other member of that species has.

Individualism is the byproduct of our ability to reason because the beliefs people have about what is the truth are developed by their ability to reason but because every person reasons independently of the other they will establish diffrent conclusions about what is correct. Those conclusions might change but only because of their own internal reasoning process and not because of any force or coercion on the part of another.

This establishes a state of equality of rank among all being capable of reasoning since no force or coercion can by used to alter what one reasonable being thinks is correct or about what they should do with their own lives. This makes it impossible for any reasonable being to be subservient to another reasonable being wishes without any internal comprehension as to why those wishes are correct.

From our ability to reason we establish an equality of rank with all other people and since each person was born with this ability then each person was born with an equal authority over their own lives. This means that no person has a natural birthright to determine the actions of another which means that each person was born in a natural state of freedom since no person has any natural authority over any other.

A person that possesses twice the intelligence of the average human would still have the same equality as any other member of the same species simply because the degree to which we can reason only changes the pace at which we will discover truth and not if we will discover the same truth. Even a reasonable mind capable of infinite intelligence would be equal in rank with all other reasonable lesser minds simply because all reasonable minds will discover the same truth.

This mind capable of infinite intelligence can be thought of as God by some philosophers and religions but regardless of what we believe a mind capable of infinite intelligence is that being is incapable of having any authority over us simply because any degree of reason makes us all equal in authority with one another. The state of equality and freedom does not end at our species but extends to all beings capable of reason which would include the mind capable of infinite intelligence.

This does not say that man is equal in abilities to this infinite intelligence (ROFLMAO) but only equal in authority which means man can not tell this infinite intelligence how it is to use its powers and it can’t tell man how to use his infinitely weaker abilities. The time it takes for the infinite intelligence to discover what the truth is is instant which makes truth and the infinite intelligence identical. The ability of unequal minds to use reason to discover the same identical truth makes all things equal in authority with each other since all things will eventually know the same reality.

Truth is like the anchor for our reasoning and without it their would only be insantiy. Reason can’t exist without truth and without reason their would be no equlity from witch we would have no basis to derive our freedom from.

All intellects capable of the power to reason will always be subject to truth because they will never be able to discover anything but truth itself. This makes truth the great equalizer among all beings capable of reason because no matter how great or small the intellect is it will always reach the same conclusion because truth is like a tree in a forest and reason is the path to that tree of which there could be many but every single one of them will always lead to the same tree.

It may seem this is a contradiction of what we know of examples of the infinite mind because most religions teaches us that it punishes us for doing certain actions that are known as evil but those actions could not manifest themselves without the thought to do them first. It would make more sense to believe that if the infinite mind wanted people not to do those actions it would deny us the ability to think them thus eliminating the ability to perform the evil action. God values freedom and equality as much as he values morality because he never denies people the freedom of thought which is the basis of our equality and freedom.

The ability to reason will lead us to the same truth that the infinite mind has already discovered and this makes truth the great equalizer among beings capable of reason but possessing the ability to reason does not mean we possess the default right to truth. That is discovered by our inherent ability to reason that was given to us by whatever was responsible for our creation. The ability to reason allows us to discover truth and all reasoning minds, of any degree, are subject to its authority.

This is why all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…

Edward Browning Bosley
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