Quote:If we don’t have rights over lesser creatures, then we’re using them without right for our own selfish purposes. If we don’t need justification, why does God?
We do require justification. There are few people out there who would condone the random and needless slaughter of animals. Even when we exterminate insects it is for a purpose. If it is done for no reason at all, we call the perpetrators 'psychopaths'.
God needs justification because if he is all-powerful and all-knowing, he has the ability to erase all evil in the world merely by wishing it so. That he refuses to do this when he has that capacity indicts him as desiring of human suffering and misery (all the moreso when he is all over scripture as encouraging acts of evil among his followers or committing genocide personally).
An all-powerful being should never require anything bad to be part of his plan. If his plan requires that little Timmy die a horrible death of cancer at age 5, it means that either God is imperfect or that he takes pleasure in little Timmy's suffering. Theists always ignore this glaring fact because they know it means that they have to either admit that their God has flaws or that they worship a divine Freddy Kreuger.