According to Gensis, what is man's place in the natural world?

Question

In the first book of the old testament, it is about the creation of the world. and if you had read it than you can answer these 2 questions:

what does humanity's relationship with nature reveal about ancient attitudes toward the environment ? !!!

and the main question above ! ;D

Answer 1

According to the bible all animals and things in nature were created for us to use. Which is why very religious people usually don't care about the environment.  

Answer 2

In the beginning(Genesis), God made man the ruler of the natural world, even more of a ruler as it is right now. In fact, the original plan, was to only have 2 humans in Earth living forever(immortality), Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve would have lived forever ruling Earth and the Garden of Eden talking to God face to face.

After the fall of man, by the own will of man(Adam and Eve) and the deception of Satan(the serpent), God ended man immortality and ruling of the word. In fact, Satan robed man dominance over the world until JesusChrist(the son of man as He called himself sometimes), recovered Earth dominance from Satan through his life, sacrifice in death and resurrection.

So answering your question, in our still evil nature, we still hurt the environment(aka Earth) but thanks to JesusChrist mankind and Earth redemption will come soon through the Second Coming of Jesus so Earth will suffer no more and the righteous men will rule with Jesus in a new Earth.

P.S. Responding to my friend that mentioned me at the bottom; yes God told Adam and Eve to fill the Earth but it was only to them, that is to have children or so, but they HAD immortality so an immortality man could not reproduce to a point where the whole earth would be filled with humans.Is very difficult to imagine such a thing because we are product of the fallen man, so imagining a super human immortal and such is kinda imposible but that's the way it was at the beginning.

Answer 3

According to Genesis, man's place in the world is to "have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Gen. 1:26

It seems to the biblical writers that man is not an animal but something infinitely more. It seems we were created to be masters of our world, and every other living thing, and even the earth itself, are beneath us and created simply to serve us. It seems the ancients only cared about being served by the earth and all other living creatures, regardless of how if affected the environment.

"It is becoming rather obvious that human beings would be better off to exercise their "dominion" by deciding to have less absolute "dominion". People had better think of themselves as caretakers of the Earth and not as it's masters."

Isaac Asimov

Answer 4

Your question is interesting.  By the way and against the Brothers answer the mandate was always to fill the earth and not just for the two only to live forever.  But back to the question.

God created the world.  He made man in his own image and endowed man with derivative powers to understand nature, to rule over it, to enjoy it, and to steward it with wisdom and in a close and personal relationship with the Creator.  

It would also appear that he originally made man vegetarian.

There was a harmony that was intended, but sin broke that harmony and brought in hardship in farming and herding through thorns and briars and bugs and weather and disease, both in plant farming and herding.  

As man spread out and got away from God fertility gods and goddesses came into the picture and man went from a pure and direct knowledge of God to an indirect and corrupted one.  He began to worship nature rather than the God and Creator of nature.  

He needed to control the environment and he began to try to do this through technology (Sumerian cisterns and other things) and through irrigation (Psalm 1) and through corrupted religion (worship of nature gods).  

One thing he didn't worry about was global warming.

Maggie

Answer 5

...enjoy all that LIFE IS...in the moment...thanks for asking...