The more I realize that there really are only two belief systems in the world, and that the differences within those systems are negotiable, but differences between those systems are not.

You either believe in justice for everyone or you believe that justice is earned. The justice for everyone crowd believes that all humans deserve some basic rights and have some basic responsibilities (we may differ on what the rights and responsibilities are). The justice is earned crowd believes that the right to live your life as you wish is earned through power and money (it’s ok to have homosexual sex if your a politician while voting to keep homosexuals without power and influence from living their lives).

Neither of these viewpoints is particular to any religion or lack of religion. Actually, nearly every religion I know of has some version of justice for everyone in it. You can call it the golden rule, or just say “do unto others” and everybody will get what you mean. I am not religious, but I come to my view of justice through John Rawls’ veil of ignorance, meaning I try to look at the world as if I don’t know what my place in it would be, and by not knowing if I would be the lowest of the low or the most powerful person, I want to create a world that is just for both ends.

But why is the idea of justice so important? It is the core value from which all ideas of fairness and rights come from. When enough people feel that their society has become unjust, revolutions happen. When working hard is not enough to feed your family, when one half of society sees the other half as their property, when the mechanisms of everyday life become tools for creating greater disparity between those who receive justice and those who do not, society falls apart. That is why everyone deserves justice. That is why when person is treated unjustly, there is no justice for anyone. The rules of society must be applied universally or they are not only unjust, but they create the power inequities that will ruin the society eventually.