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Genesis 1:26 NIV: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing.”
Slowly I have come to the realization that not only is this bible verse wrong, its pure nonsense. I wake up every morning, yawn, scratch and go pee, and soon I'm thinking about food. So do my dogs. They wake up every morning, yawn, and scratch and go pee then, and bark for their breakfast. Then after my coffee, I go out on the porch to be met by the neighborhood crows, squawking for their breakfast of kibbles and whatever insect they may find walking about in my yard.
The other neighborhood birds, blue, speckled, and red breasted are also hanging around looking for their food. The occasional neighborhood rat scurries around in my neighbor’s back yard also for their version of breakfast. I see nothing in these normal events that suggest man deserves dominion. What I see is not superiority, rather a commonality.
So I will look elsewhere for man's superiority.
Man is certainly not the strongest creature on the planet. An elephant can push over trees, can lift 650 pounds with its trunk and are used in logging. A full grown gorilla could back hand you into the next time zone. Arnold at his best could lift 500 pounds but he is an anomaly and is no good at logging. Most men/women are unable to lift 40 pounds and have trouble lifting the groceries out of the car.
How about speed? Usain Bolt is the fastest recorded man at about 23 miles per hour. Florence Joyner was the fastest woman at about 23 miles per hour too, but these folks are also anomalies. Even the lumbering elephant can run 25 miles per hour. So a two ton elephant can run faster than the fastest man. A Lion can run 50 mph, a leopard, 36mph, a Tiger 30 to 40 mph, a Gazelle at 60 mph. So humans are pikers at speed. I suspect most of us have trouble running a block to the bus stop at about a mile and a half an hour without gasping for breath.
Are we more agile or flexible than the creatures? Harry Houdini was pretty flexible, escaping from straight jackets and crates wrapped in chains. But we have all seen a snake wiggle and slither. Humans can't move like that. How about the Octopus? Probably the most flexible creature on the planet. It has no bones in its body and can make itself small. They are famous for escaping their tanks in aquariums and slithering down a small drain pipe to freedom in the ocean. Humans have trouble making themselves small enough to fit last season’s best suit.
Well we humans have brains and so we can think and reason. But reasoning is not exclusive to humans. Crows can reason. Rats in a maze can reason. The big apes can reason. I'm pretty sure wolfs can reason and indeed plot the demise of their next meal. Being able to reason is not exclusive to man. So is a brain really necessary? Many creatures exist and succeed totally without a brain, or a half a brain.
Did you know ducks can shut one eye and rest half their brain while keeping their other eye open for danger and that half their brain is awake? How about no brain at all? Starfish have no brains, yet eat, reproduce and congregate together. The lowly sand dollar has no brain. Clypeasteroida is the technical name for these sea creatures. These guys have no legs but move about on tiny spines which move them in the sand. They too eat, reproduce and congregate in small groups on the sea floor. They must be able to communicate because they all live in small communities. They have few enemies as they are impossible to eat.
So are humans the best at anything? Yes, humans can take pride in being the only creatures to pollute the planet. We can do what the other creatures cannot do. We destroy our own environment. We don't recycle enough, we just throw things away. Out of sight, out of mind. Down the drain and gone that's our motto. Just look at pictures of all the plastic floating around in our oceans, acres of floating plastic bottles and containers of all kinds, polluting the sea and killing creatures that eat it or get stuck in it.
Remember humans, it is not the plastic's fault it doesn't get recycled, it is your fault.
Can we learn from our mistakes? Are we trainable? Yes, but many creatures also learn how to do things. This is why we can teach our dogs tricks. Even fleas can be trained to perform in a flea circus.
Our one redeeming feature, something only we humans can do, is we can change our environment. We can clean up our mess. We can stop polluting our rivers and oceans, we can recycle all the plastics and we can clean up the air. We can move humanity towards cleaner machines, electric cars and trucks, and wind power. The creatures can't do this. If they are born in the jungle, they stay in the jungle. If they are born in the ocean, they stay in the ocean. So we humans are unique in this important way.
I'm sorry if I have injured your tender hubris humans, but we are not superior to much of anything on this earth and the bible verse giving us dominion over all the creatures is at best idealist nonsense.
If I could change the bible verse it would say: “Man is equal to all but superior to none.”
We must act as guardians' and stewards to the natural world, not as its exploiters.
By Don DuPay
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