“Be fruitful and multiply … and have dominion over … every living thing”

The expression “Be fruitful and multiply … and have dominion over … every living thing” is an abbreviated reference to the first chapter of Genesis, used by Nathan Oliver during a dispute about animal experiments. He turns the biblical language of dominion into a pointed description of humanity as predator and exploiter, exposing the moral assumptions that can hide inside a familiar religious command.

Biblical Language in the Debate

Oliver invokes the passage while addressing Mark Yelland, who has just said that he has no supernatural beliefs. Oliver professes surprise and assumes that Yelland might take an Old Testament view of the matter before recalling the Genesis command. The full passage he cites also speaks of replenishing the earth and subduing it; his argument culminates in the grant of dominion over animals and every living thing.

Dominion as Exploitation

Oliver immediately recasts dominion as human power over other creatures: humanity is, in his formulation, “Man the great predator, the supreme exploiter, the arbiter of life and death by divine permission.” The phrase does not settle whether animal experimentation is morally defensible. Instead, it makes the inherited language of permission itself the subject of scrutiny, connecting religious authority to human control over life and death.

Rhetorical Function

The reference sharpens a discussion of animal experiments without establishing that Oliver personally holds a firm position on them. He later says that he has no strong views either way and distinguishes his characters’ convictions from his own. The allusion therefore works as a provocation rather than a straightforward declaration of belief: it dramatizes how a command to exercise dominion can be read as a justification for exploitation, even as Oliver distances himself from taking a settled side.