One verse that God keeps reminding me of is – Exodus 14:13
And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. (NKJV)

Also, when I start trusting God and let Him fight for me, I can say that this verse rings true – Psalm 34:8 – “Taste and see that the Lord is good”. Most times we want to see and then taste. By stepping out in obedience to God before seeing anything – we are actually tasting and then we get to see that God is indeed good. It’s so easy for us to want to see the results first before we obey Him.

Regarding the Old Testament, there are various ways that they can be interpreted, each with its value. Regardless of whether they believe that they are real or true, the nature of Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) “stories”, myths and legends are based on some accepted cultural truth – whether or not that is communicated to us in a 21st century Western culture is another matter. Personally, I don’t think the Old Testament sets out to be a “history” book, as we might so expect; rather, through an account of “story-telling”, as you might expect from an ANE oral culture, explores a reality much deeper.

At any rate: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” — sounds like a rather jerk thing to command The Abrahamic “god” of the Old Testament seem to come across as a jerk quite often in that book…

Sure, if he was a person like you and me. However, the difficulty which most people struggle with is that God is, simply, God. In the full sense of the word, a being perfect and complete, in character and status, with power and authority beyond humanity. The mandate/command given to rule over Creation is, similarly, like a king who delegates his authority to his subjects over aspects of his domain. To stretch the image a little further, it is like a monarch who trusts his aristocracy (the princes, dukes, barons, etc.) to maintain his domain and enables them to do so, freely and responsibility. Unlike the dictator who does not trust his administration, resulting in his absolute command with no deviation – adequately described, a “jerk”.

Simply put, an inadequate understanding of the character of who God is, results in an inadequate response. To view God through a human framework, simply doesn’t work. Herein lies the problem, it is only through faith, looking beyond what we know, that we see beyond the human framework.

I realise that you’re a pastor but we need to set out some common ground first before rational debate on any topic can begin.

Also, I thought that most modern Christians didn’t really believe that a lot of the stories from the Old Testament (Noah’s Ark, Adam and Eve, etc) were realistic or true – they were just “stories”?

At any rate: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” — sounds like a rather jerk thing to command The Abrahamic “god” of the Old Testament seem to come across as a jerk quite often in that book…

The “God”-given mandate at Creation of the BIble is:
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”‘

My point regarding the “denigration of humanity” flows, therefore, from this mandate; there is a cause for humanity to exercise – let me emphasise, within proper bounds – authority and charge over all of Creation, that is, the environment and the animal kingdom.

You make an extremely valid point regarding the nature of humanity, one that “rapes, exploits, murders, cons, extorts and lies to other humans.” To further my “God”-perspective, the very point that humanity is broken and corrupt – as you may known, when Adam and Eve sinned – is where this all falls apart. As a result, humanity’s mandate of authority and charge over Creation is broken and corrupted. (Regarding your view of humanity suffering, painfully, dribbling to the end…there’s more that can be said regarding this issue.)

This denigration is, then, not so much the attempt to protect; rather, it is the means and understanding of humanity’s aim to protect. In the end, I don’t actually think the result would be all that different, but I do think that the role and status of humanity would be significantly different. Ironically, my praise of humanity is that, despite its differing perception of the world, it still lives up to the original mandate as caretakers for this world.