The Bible says effectively that man has dominion over all animals on Earth,

[heidler1]

are we mentally/emotionally equipped to handle the responsibility?

[Double T]

1. No, we are not mentally/emotionally responsible to handle.........

oversight of other living creatures; 'we' have already made a horribly destructive attempt that has failed. I'll leave what The Bible says to others.

[theoldman]

2. We are mentally equipped alright.

It's just a question of whether we choose to use the brains that God gave us.

[havocmom]

3. Man gave himself permission by penciling that in

during the rough draft or any of the subsequent translations/edits. Sorta like having Alberto Gonzales decide what is legal for bushco, don't ya think? ;)

[zanne]

4. I don't think "dominion" means "power"...

I think it means responsibility toward animals. In other words, humans are the caretakers of animals. It doesn't give us the right to slaughter them for their tusks, in other words.

[PurpleChez]

6. Exactly. See post #5, which I must have been writing same time as you.

[Meshuga]

7. This "domination" is not an exploitative one

In the context of the story, at that stage, man was not permitted to eat animals, as we learn from the very next verse which limits the first man's diet to plants. And human had no need for animals for labor, since labor was unnecessary. Being caretakers and having responsibility toward animals is how I see this story.

[heidler1]

13. OK, but does that mean God did not know what he/she was doing?

[Meshuga]

17. Did not know what...

...he/she was doing about what? Whether to let people eat animals? This tale takes place in a paradise in a "more refined" world. In the Garden of Eden, man's relationship to the animal kingdom was one of fellowship but after the fall the animals were scared shitless of humans.

The use of animals for labor was unnecessary until after the fall, when man was sentenced to live by the "sweat of his brow".

Eating meat was not allowed until after the flood. But the bible seems to imply that in a more refined world meat is not consumed. You know, we meat eating people are a bunch of savages. :-) The laws of kashrut later in the bible deals with limiting the number of animals that can be eaten and how killing the animal should be performed in a certain way in order to reduce the animal's suffering.

[Meshuga]

15. self delete

posted by mistake...

[havocmom]

11. I agree, but the editors messed up the message

to suit their own desires ;) Irresponsibility was not an invention of George W bush. He just refined it a bit.

I always took the meaning to be we had to be good and dedicated stewards.

[heidler1]

12. You get it IMO.

[PurpleChez]

5. Doesn't it say that we not only have dominion over but also

responsibility for all animals on Earth? One reason I have never been bitter about my Christian upbringing is the fact that my mainstream whitebread church gave so much time to ideas such as stewardship and none to war mongering, fag bashing, etc.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

8. The Bible was written by men for men. nt

[NJCher]

9. yeah, right

Dominion over animals. Tell it to my cat.



Cher

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. Dominion means responsibility

and with that responsibility, the added burden of really suffering if we mess it up. With the way things are going now, we can very well make this planet uninhabitable not only for many many species but also for ourselves-and we will be aware that this has happened because of our own folly.

[heidler1]

14. Were we then created to inevitably fail?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. No, we were created to learn from our mistakes

this world is a playground for souls, a way of exploring and creating, with certain ground rules, one of which is to realize each action has consequences and that, somehow, we take responsibility for those actions, even if not directly and consciously. I do think great changes are coming to the planet soon, and they are not all to the bad. But then I agree with Haz. Inayat Khan when he said that after death, the soul looks back on their life as "an interesting dream".

[Meshuga]

18. We were born with options

of whether to be responsible or care less.