We have discussed in other sections how those who are racists set their race as apart and superior to other races, how sexists, usually male, but not always, set themselves up as superior to the female, how the egotist believes he or she is superior to those around them, and how the Elitist (the Rich) believe they are meant to have wealth and privileges above the other classes.  In "Genesis" 26-28 we see that the injunction to "subdue the earth" and "have dominion over" other creatures.  It was no accident these scriptures occur before the non elitist vegetarian covenant which sees all animal creatures as given the same law equally, that they are not to kill other creatures, but to eat plants.

   Interestingly, though we see this elitist process begin to take form in "Genesis," in the scriptures which regard Eden as a Garden, rather than a natural uncontrived place of edible vegetation.  We see it also in those scriptures which condone mining for example, and therefore the exploitation of the earth.  And then, even more bluntly, in the fact that God contradicts His Divine Will by accepting the sacrifices of Abel, which were condemned in the Vegetarian Covenant of Genesis 1: 29. Finally in the 9th chapter of Genesis we have the presentation of a God who has suffered a virtually total reversal of values, and now is totally devoid of the compassion He felt for creatures in the introductory eulogy in the first chapter of Genesis, as well as in the Vegetarian Covenant. God is now presented as desiring that humans eat flesh, and decrees that now it is legitimate for other creatures to feel terror and dread because of his change of mind.
 

   Only the degenerate mind could accept such a Deity, and of such are the orthodoxies of Judaism, Christianity, and Sunni Islam.  The word degenerate itself contains the recognition that what was once healthy has regressed to what is unhealthy. And, interestingly, it suggests what Isaias attributed to those who eat flesh, that those who were weighed down in animal fat were also in a stupor of sorts, suggesting a recognition of the biological fact that those who ingest animal fat clog the blood cells of not only their hearts, leading to heart disease, but the cells of their own brains as well, leading them to become less capable of the moral discernment that is necessary for all spiritual people.   Here is the refusal to recognize the elitism or pride that is prerequisite for all offense, transgression, or sin.  It would be naive for those who see the world as a battleground between good and evil to think that those at the highest levels promoting evil are unaware of the physiological debilitating effects of flesh-eating.
 

    The very acceptance of such a Deity, a Deity who promotes suffering and evil for its own creatures,  is in itself a sin or transgression, and its ulterior motive is easily perceived in the advantages gained: the carnivore gets a corpse to eat; those in the meat industry profit from the trafficking of animal corpses.
 

   Contrast this human-centered view with the creation-centered view which is central to the original scriptures, which sees the creation of creatures as good, which sees them as having consciousness and free will, and which sees the other creatures as--like humans--deserving punishment because they have transgressed Deity's original vegetarian covenant.  Sirach understood this elitism well:

And so did Esdras who channeled the notion that Deity's love for creation is far deeper than any human can conceive.

Thus the importance of the notion that "all flesh," meaning all the kinds of creatures, had become corrupt and violent.

Gen. 6: 5-8 The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. so the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them.  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."

Gen. 6: 11: Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.  God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.

6: 17: I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it.  Everything on earth will perish.

7: 4 "Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."

Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.  they will be yours for food.  And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that hs the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food.  And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Gen. 1: 29-31

   We are introduced to the Lord of the Sabbath in Genesis, the Deity who creates for six days and rests on the seventh.  The Shebbath in ancient Hebrew was named after the Deity Saba, also known as Seba, Sheba and Shiva, who is known as Lord of Creatures and Protector of Cattle, and thus is the logical author of the Vegetarian Covenant.  Saba is another form of Sheba, and Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts, is likewise named after Saba, or Shiva.  (As are Shavu ot, the Pentecost, and T'ub Shevat, the feast of trees.)

   The fact that Shiva, the Lord of the Sabbath we see operating in "Genesis," and the deity after whom the Sabaoth is named, is known as Lord of Creatures and Protector of Cattle, is further evidence for the recognition that all flesh has consciousness and free will.
So too this was recognized by the late prophets denouncing the animal sacrifices. For example, Joel states: "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh." And David says "let all creatures praise God." Neither was being figurative; both were being literal. The reader need merely look up "all flesh" in the various biblical concordances that exist on and off line, to confirm that the earliest Jews regarded all creatures as conscious and having free will, as do mainstream Hindus, Jains, Buddhists.
 

   The importance of the recognition that other creatures have consciousness and free will
is this: once the sincere reader of scripture recognizes, as the real Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad did, that other creatures have consciousness and free will, then they will not be inclined to kill a being who is not only of flesh, like themselves, but also of spirit, like themselves.  The fact is that the orthodoxies of Judaism, Christianity, and Sunni Islam now deny that other creatures have consciousness and will, in spite of the scriptures quoted above which they supposedly accept. 
 

All scriptures in this chapter with the exception of the first citation of Genesis 1: 29-30 are from the International Version.