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vjvjvjvjghvtoday at 5:05 PM6 repliesview on HN

I always wonder how the world would look if the bible had said "Respect the earth and all living beings" instead of “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion…"


Replies

hombre_fataltoday at 7:55 PM

There are infinite alterations you can make to the bible to make it more moral, like remove the parts where innocent people are punished on someone else’s behalf (raped, stoned, killed) or commanded to enslaved others and take virgins as the spoils of war.

Thankfully over the centuries some people have used their human moral intuitions to gloss over some of the worst parts. But would’ve been much nicer to not have those parts at all.

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harimau777today at 7:28 PM

A lot of Christians argue that it does say exactly that. In Genesis 2:15, God tells Adam to care for the planet:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Of course fundamentalists tend not to see it that way.

nvarsjtoday at 5:47 PM

Well no king would ever accept and propagate that religion.

lotsofpulptoday at 6:07 PM

The tribe with the bible that directed to multiply would have conquered the tribe with the bible that directed respect the earth and all living beings because back then, might was proportional to population.

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Jenssontoday at 6:32 PM

It would look like India.

infogulchtoday at 6:52 PM

"be fruitful" and "replenish the earth" is already aligned

As for "subdue", ask anyone maintaining a large garden how much they have to work to keep it from reverting back to a wilderness. Gardening is choosing which species stay and which are forcibly removed and optimizing the environment to enable your chosen species to thrive. If the words "subdue" and "dominion" freak you out, pick your brains up off the floor and go touch grass.

Western civilization has decided that it wants to keep the primate species and is dissatisfied when they become roadkill, so it altered the environment to enable the chosen species to thrive. This article is a gardening success story. Gardening requires dominion. We have dominion over the primates and we have chosen to be benevolent with that dominion.

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