Researchers have confirmed that over a long period of time—through a process of evolution—when human mere focus and spend most of their time and energy to leverage their intellectual capacity, it costs them other capacities, like speed, agility, muscle strength and also declines other physical abilities.[1] The human being becoming more fragile to sicknesses and even death. And finally, nature not just offer them good things but also various dangerous challenges that threatening their life.
From history and our everyday live, we could also learn how weak the human emotion is and how at many times we could not control and use its energy properly. Many big fighting and even war usually begin with a small conflict. The Greek mythology teaches us how an emotional love problem between Paris of Troy, Helen and her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta, could lead Greek and Troy into a great battle. In the real world, it is true as well. The bloody war that had cost thousands of casualties between Muslim and Christian in Poso and Moluccas began with a fight of two street gangsters. It also happened with ethnic conflict in Kalimantan. More than one thousand was killed (not to mention the injured) and many others escaped and flee from their home just because of one thief that coincidentally was coming from a particular ethnic tribe. If we looked back to the history of World War I that had caused 15 to 20 million life lost—despite all the geopolitical tensions in the Europe at that time—it was actually sparked by one event, the murderer of the heir to the Austria-Hungary throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife. From our daily life, we still see and experience how families and relationships that have been built for a long period of time could break just because of a single improper emotional expression.
What about human intelligence? Are we really smarter than animals? Prof. Maciej Hennenberg, an expert in anthropological and comparative anatomy from the University of Adelaide said, “The fact that they [the animals] may not understand us, while we do not understand them, does not mean our 'intelligence' are at different levels, they are just of different kinds. When a foreigner tries to communicate with us using an imperfect, broken, version of our language, our impression is that they are not very intelligent. But the reality is quite different.” [2] What this professor what to tell us was that we often fail to understand that intelligence is not just about the ability to reason (a type of intellectual ability that is well-governed by the human being). Rather, intelligence has many facets. From this perspective, it is quite right to say that animals could have another kind of intelligence that may surpass human capacity.
So, if these are the facts, what else will we human being boast about? I think it is quite understandable then, when the Psalmist—after surveying some great creatures—wrote Psalm 8.
Again, we are still pondering now, what exactly the scripture really meant by saying that the human has received the dominion?
Human civilizations often associate dominion with power to rule and gaining control over others. It always has the tendency on conquering, commanding and enslaving. This spirit later manifested in the rise of many empires, kingdoms, and even today’s governments. Their sole intention is to control others and spreading their influence over the world so that they can get more people in their control. But surprisingly, against the intention, many empires, and kingdoms that struggling and even fighting to preserve their control, don’t exist anymore. They simply perish and we could only find them today in the archaeological sites or in historical books. I think this is another example of human foolishness or irony, and again, it should remind us that we aren’t superior to other creatures.
Ellen Davis, an Old Testament Scholar from Duke, translated the Genesis 1:26, that has the word dominion, like this: “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, so they may exercise skilled mastery among [or, with respect to] the fish of the sea and among the birds of the air.”[3] Later he explained it, “We fulfill our role in the created order only when we recognize our responsibility to help perpetuate other creatures’ fruitfulness.”[4] Actually, two thousand years ago Jesus had said and warned us about this reality. Jesus reminded his disciples about our savage and evil intention to control others that usually manifested in the form of governments, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.”[5] And then Jesus gave alternative definition about dominion, “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.”[6]
Greatness doesn’t come through control, rather it is showed up through humility and service. In the same way, we could also say that dominion is not the power to control but the power to love and to serve others with responsibility. Nothing of the creatures could do that. It is a super huge thing that only we, human being, can do.....
Notes:
[1] Dan Vergano, “Humans Evolved Weak Muscles to Feed Brain’s Growth, Study Suggests” [http://news. nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140527-brain-muscle-metabolism-genes-apes-science/].
[2] “Humans not smarter than animals, just different,” [http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news67182. html].
[3] “The Meaning of Dominion” [https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/related-articles/meaning-of-dominion.aspx].
[4] ibid.
[5] Matt. 20:25.
[6] Matt. 20:26-27.
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