Human Dignity and the Divine Image iv According to Article 1 of the UDHR, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights . ” By contrast, the influence of the Bible is still evident in the American Declaration of Independence : “We hold these truths to be self - evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness . ” The difference between “born” and “created” reflects the difference between the secular approach of the UDHR and the religious underpinning of the Declaration of Independence . Yehoshua Arieli saw the fusion of Christianity and Roman law into a single civilization as an important turning point that made the autonomy of the secular political sphere in Western culture possible . After the initial separation between secular Roman law and the religious sphere of the Church, the secularization of society turned natural law into the basis ...
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