Don't think he was quite a conspiracy theorist, though I do think he was raised on John Birch Society stuff, but a previous coworker, catholic, told me people shouldn't even be punished for animal abus3 because animals don't have souls.

Christians literally believe the statements in genesis to mean they are just shy of God themselves, and all other living beings are inferior, without God's protection. In several cases, they include nonwhite racses in this list of inferior as well. Man is to rule over them or whatever.