>>592893
>as far as I'm aware they have no soul so Christians have no duty to them one way or the other.
WOAH, WOAH, WOAH, we'll be stopping right there. Gingers have no souls, but we have just as much responsibility to them as to any other men.
But srsly, we DO have a responsibility to animals, to plants, to all of God's creation:
We are God's stewards over all this earth
… which is why I am so blown away that there ISN'T a Christian Green movement to counteract the stupidity of the Gaia-worshipping greenies that dominate environmental issues today. But, I guess most Christians have adopted the meme that "dominion" means we can do whatever the hell we like, to which I would point them to Luke 12:42-46 for guidance.
>What does the Bible say about maximising the welfare of animals?
<Then God said, ""Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen 1:26
< And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Gen 1:28
<The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Gen 2:15
<"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. Lev 25:23
<'''Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times? … Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?" Num 22 excerpts
That's all I can think of atm.
I don't think this is then justification to regard animals as human equivalents. They're not, but this doesn't mean we get to kick the cat. It's a well-known fact that kids that torture animals grow up to be psychopaths and CEOs, so the cruelty we inflict on the smallest, weakest amongst us reflects on the state of our souls, and, I think, the earth and all in it will testify against those who are wilfully cruel at the end of things. That said, Balaam rode a donkey, as did Christ, and Oxen were biblically expected to grind grain, so animals would work, and animals would die for purposes of our consumption and offerings to the Lord. So, I also don't think veganism is an automatic inference from God's commands to us.
STILL, I will protest against cruel treatment of animals, against "inhumane" caging and dosing with hormones and all the cruelty the food industry insists upon for lower prices because I do not think this is reflective of our stewardship responsibilities nor of our inherent "humanity". But then, the Lord regularly called out bosses, kings and others who were bad to their underlings. And I do regard the animal kingdom as our charges, in the older sense of that word.