Sapiens: a brief History of Humankind

created equal
, that they are 
endowed
by their 
Creator
with certain 
unalienable rights
, that among these are life, 
liberty
, and the pursuit of 
happiness
.
According to the science of biology, people were not created’. They have evolved.
And they certainly did not evolve to be ‘equal’. The idea of equality is inextricably
intertwined with the idea of creation. The Americans got the idea of equality from
Christianity, which argues that every person has a divinely created soul, and that

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all souls are equal before God. However, if we do not believe in the Christian
myths about God, creation and souls, what does it mean that all people are
‘equal’? Evolution is based on di erence, not on equality. Every person carries a
somewhat di erent genetic code, and is exposed from birth to di erent
environmental in uences. This leads to the development of di erent qualities that
carry with them di erent chances of survival. ‘Created equal’ should therefore be
translated into ‘evolved differently’.
Just as people were never created, neither, according to the science of biology,
is there a ‘Creator’ who ‘endows’ them with anything. There is only a blind
evolutionary process, devoid of any purpose, leading to the birth of individuals.
‘Endowed by their creator’ should be translated simply into ‘born.
Equally, there are no such things as rights in biology. There are only organs,
abilities and characteristics. Birds y not because they have a right to y, but
because they have wings. And it’s not true that these organs, abilities and
characteristics are ‘unalienable’. Many of them undergo constant mutations, and
may well be completely lost over time. The ostrich is a bird that lost its ability to
fly. So ‘unalienable rights’ should be translated into ‘mutable characteristics’.
And what are the characteristics that evolved in humans? ‘Life’, certainly. But
‘liberty’? There is no such thing in biology. Just like equality, rights and limited
liability companies, liberty is something that people invented and that exists only
in their imagination. From a biological viewpoint, it is meaningless to say that
humans in democratic societies are free, whereas humans in dictatorships are
unfree. And what about ‘happiness’? So far biological research has failed to come
up with a clear de nition of happiness or a way to measure it objectively. Most
biological studies acknowledge only the existence of pleasure, which is more easily
de ned and measured. So ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ should be
translated into ‘life and the pursuit of pleasure’.
So here is that line from the American Declaration of Independence translated
into biological terms:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved di erently, that they are born with certain mutable
characteristics, and that among these are life and the pursuit of pleasure.
Advocates of equality and human rights may be outraged by this line of reasoning.
Their response is likely to be, ‘We know that people are not equal biologically!
But if we believe that we are all equal in essence, it will enable us to create a
stable and prosperous society.’ I have no argument with that. This is exactly what
I mean by ‘imagined order’. We believe in a particular order not because it is
objectively true, but because believing in it enables us to cooperate e ectively and
forge a better society. Imagined orders are not evil conspiracies or useless

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mirages. Rather, they are the only way large numbers of humans can cooperate
e ectively. Bear in mind, though, that Hammurabi might have defended his
principle of hierarchy using the same logic: ‘I know that superiors, commoners
and slaves are not inherently di erent kinds of people. But if we believe that they
are, it will enable us to create a stable and prosperous society.’
True Believers
It’s likely that more than a few readers squirmed in their chairs while reading the
preceding paragraphs. Most of us today are educated to react in such a way. It is
easy to accept that Hammurabi’s Code was a myth, but we do not want to hear
that human rights are also a myth. If people realise that human rights exist only in
the imagination, isn’t there a danger that our society will collapse? Voltaire said
about God that ‘there is no God, but don’t tell that to my servant, lest he murder
me at night’. Hammurabi would have said the same about his principle of
hierarchy, and Thomas Je erson about human rights.