Subject: Question about Genesis 6:6 |
Bible Note: I believe this is an accurate conclusion. Rights emanate from God, who establishes the order of all things. We read: Gen 1 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so. Man is given dominion over the animals and plants... this is pretty clear. The concept of rights for animals is not found. In fact, the concept of rights for humans can only be inferred. There is nowhere in the Bible that we find God saying, "The rights for all humans are... blah blah blah". We could, however, infer rights from the "shall nots" as in the 10 Commandments, for example. If "thou shall not commit murder", we could conclude that we have the God given right not to be murdered by someone else. But I don't see anything in Scripture that would give animals similar inferred "rights". It is also interesting to note that this order was established before the fall of man, thus it cannot be argued it is the result of the fall. It is the perfect order established by God at the time of creation. We are to grow crops and livestock to be harvested for food and other purposes for the benefit of mankind... this is the way God intended it to be. By the way, my experience with animal rights activists is that they are generally not drawing on Scripture for their position. They are most often in the secular humanist camp (whether they know it or not), drawing on philosophies of humanism to make their case. In its most basic form, humanism says that mankind determines the order of things and God is not a factor. Humanism leave us with laws that protect the eggs of the bald eagle, while permitting the taking of the unborn human life through abortion on demand. When makind makes up rules outside the guidance of Scripture, stange and often scary results can occur. Your thoughts? Curt |