Your logic is inconsistent and you are misusing the term "gluttony". Animals have no "extra" inherent value compared to any other natural resource. The only life that matters is human life because we were made in the image of God and not animals. Everything else is put here for our benefit. Sorry if that offends people in our politically correct culture but that's the way it is. Biblical concepts tend to offend people, BTW.
I disagree with the idea that it is a Biblical concept that "the only life that matters is human life" and that "everything else is put here for our benefit". If you have some texts that support those claims, I'd like to see them. I think the overwhelming context of why anything is "put" here, (created) was for God's benefit and pleasure, not man's. We are His stewards, we care for His creation, we don't own it.
Gluttony is a term that is usually associated with food, but it doesn't necessarily mean "overeating". I think one of the best definitions of gluttony I've ever seen was "wasting resources on one's own pleasure". I'd like to give the quote, but I honestly cannot remember where I saw or heard that. It fits though. It's a common enough saying in newspapers and such that Americans are "gluttons for oil". Usually this charge is accompanied by a picture of a woman who fires up a Ford Excursion just to drive around the corner to pick up a loaf of bread. The idea is that Americans waste a lot of oil energy. (I disagree with that, btw, just using it as an example.) It is this concept, the concept of wasting resources on one's own pleasure that I am comparing trophy hunting to.
As far as how the Bible teaches us to treat animals, there are many texts that show us that we are to care for animals, not destroy them for the fun of it. I've read the Bible more than once in my life and as far as I can tell there are only four reasons given to ever kill an animal: as a sacrifice to the Lord; for food to eat; to destroy wholly an enemy land; if the animal kills a danger or kills someone. Other than those reasons, texts concerning animals tend to show that we are to care for them. Since this is Apologetics and Theology, here are a few texts that show that God looks out for the needs of the animals:
Exodus 20:10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. Animals are to enjoy the Sabbath rest as well as man.
Exodus 23:11 but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. Animals can enjoy the gleanings of the field.
Deuteronomy22:6"If you happen to come upon a bird's nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; 7 you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. Here we see that it's ok to take the young of wild birds, or the eggs, but not to take the mother. This ensures that the mother can go on living in the wild, as God intended.
Job 38:41Who prepares for the raven its nourishment
when its young cry to God
and wander about without food?
Job 39:1"Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth?
Do you observe the calving of the deer?
2"Can you count the months they fulfill,
Or do you know the time they give birth?
3"They kneel down, they bring forth their young,
They get rid of their labor pains.
4"Their offspring become strong, they grow up in the open field;
They leave and do not return to them.
5"Who sent out the wild donkey free?
And who loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,
6To whom I gave the wilderness for a home
And the salt land for his dwelling place?
The whole chapters of Job 38 and 39 are God's answer to Job regarding the whole mess that Job found himself in through no fault of His own. The answer is that God is the God of creation, He is the one who knows all these things, not man and therefore man has no right to question God. In these two chapters we find that God did not simply create the animals, give us dominion over them and then ignore them for the rest of time.
Also from Job:
12:7"But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
8"Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
9"Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
10In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind?
Especially in verse 10 we see that the life of every living thing is in the hands of God.
Even Jesus Himself said,
"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?" (Matt 6:26)
Yes, as Jesus points out, man is superior to the animals. But, just because man was set above the animals in God's creative order does not mean that God does not care about them.
I agree totally that our politically correct generation has it's values skewed with all the talk about "saving the planet". All of creation is in God's hands, not man's. But, that's my point, all of creation is God's, not man's plaything. To take the idea that God placed man as stewards of His creation as meaning that we are the only living things that matter isn't sound at all.
