subdue the earth

[tbrandonlane]

I'm not so sure if this thread might already be in discussion somewhere, but i'm looking for a serious reading of Genesis 1:28.

"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth " (NASB)

I've recently been reading up (as suggested by Andy) about the Piraha people, and different aspects of their language. The most notable being the lack of recursion, which may be responsible for the lack of counting words.

This got me thinking about how much of a call there is to dominate the earth in Genesis, both in "naming all the creatures", and in the words of Genesis 1:28. This is something John Zerzan brought up in his first radio show after the Memphis conference.

Anyone have good responses to John's comments from that radio show? Perhaps this has been discussed at length in some of the vegan threads before?

[Porter Doran]

Squeezing out enough people and kicking earth's ass were super-formidable, maybe seemingly-impossible, tasks in primal times, tasks necessary for human survival. Reading the story of the patriarchs we can see how very nervous they were that they'd just -- die out, and with good reason. But nowadays we probably need opposite commands.

[L-Dopa]

Ellul notes that the act of naming is more of an act of communion than domination(Technique in the Opening Chapters of Genesis). Seems like there are a lot of Hebrew concepts that are more nuanced than we pick up on. We tend to read dominion and domination without reading the overall context in the Genesis origins story- I would say that context could be broadly summarized as symbiosis and egalitarianism.

[Chris Rooney]

I've often wondered whether the words "Subdue" and "Dominion" are mistranslated or misrepresented in Genesis because to my thinking it is more in line with the teachings of the Gospels for people to have stewardship over creation (though I don't think it's ever addressed there). Whatever the translation ought to read I certainly doubt very much that God ever intended us to take creation and rape it the way we do with technology, capitalism and science.

As a side note, I'm not a "good" Christian, I've read more of Ellul, Francis and Day than I have of the Old Testament. I need to get around to it I've done the Torah but ran out of steam somewhere in the proverbs. Perhaps there's something more on stewardship/dominion of creation in the Prophets? I don't know. Sometimes I wish I was a real theologian as opposed to someone who just reads a lot on their own time I might have better insight into questions like this.

L-Dopa I like how you put it.

[Porter Doran]

Originally Posted by Chris Rooney

... to my thinking it is more in line with the teachings of the Gospels for people to have stewardship over creation (though I don't think it's ever addressed there).

Help a poor man whose brain may not be large enough to contain these two clauses at the same time?

[Chris Rooney]

Well it strikes me that if we love God with everything we have and love our neighbours as we love ourselves then it ought to follow that we ought to love creation equally because not only is it our home but it's the home of our neighbours and it was made by God. This is only my thinking on the matter but it just strikes me as good sense. What point is there to Loving our creator if we can't or won't love creation to the measure that it deserves? And some might argue that our neighbours aren't only humans but animals and plants as well therefore we ought to find a way to care for and nurture them as much as we would a stranger or the person next door.

I hope that makes sense. fwiw, It's only my own thinking on the subject nothing more.

[Porter Doran]

Oh oh. By "stewardship" I thought you were still talking about kicking Mother Nature's ass.

Thank you for explaining.

[Chris Rooney]

lol, no problem.