Unrighteous Dominion

The scriptures tell us that we are both significant and insignificant, made in the image of God, his sons and daughters, while at the same time being lower than the dust of the earth, or even ‘a little lower than the angels.’ So where do we stand really in the scheme of things?

We are made to have dominion over the beasts of the earth. Does this mean that the beasts don’t matter? That they have no feelings and are insentient beings? Does ‘dominion’ mean domination, or something else, more akin to stewardship?

I was reading a magazine article this morning about how animals are more intelligent than we give them credit for – (really? How much credit to people give to animals?) - I thought it sounded really arrogant on the part of humans considering we really can’t see into the mind of animals, we can only guess based on their behaviour.

Apparently a lot of people cite “moral belief” as a major factor in becoming vegetarian, which I would take to mean the belief that its cruel to kill animals. The word of wisdom, depending on how you read the particular verse that relates to meat, either says ‘don’t eat meat except in times of famine,’ or as my friend said to me when we were having an argument about meat, “Read the word of wisdom. Meat is good.”

She wasn't listening to me when I told her about the famine part, then our other friend reminded us that they didn’t have fridges back in the day when the World of Wisdom came out, so they could only eat it in winter when it was cold and wouldn’t go rancid in the sun. She said that since we now have fridges its ok to eat meat all year round.

I can’t claim to be a vegetarian, but I don’t eat meat hardly ever, maybe a couple of times a week. The article talked about this primate, related to an orangutan but I can’t remember the exact name of the species, which can talk using pictures on flash cards. Can even form simple sentences using the words. Uses and understands past and future tenses. Was raised by humans and has used these cards since it was little. Uses the words ‘be’ and ‘happy.’

The “awareness of self” test, where the animal is shown a mirror and they either preen or touch themselves rather than reaching out to the creature in the mirror. Only monkeys, dolphins and elephants passed this test, suggesting that they have a higher level of intelligence than other creatures, such as cats, rats and houseflies.

There has been a lot over the last year or so, about cruelty to animals, inhumane murders of dogs and such and it got me thinking, about the unrighteous dominion exerted by humans over the entire animal kingdom, and whether or not our feelings of superiority over them are justified. I don’t believe it is.