But Lavos is destined to destroy Man, so Man has to strike first. As does Lavos have to destroy Man so they don't strike first.
Furthermore Lavos needed to destroy Man in order to give his Spawn an environment to live in. Man always has been the dominant competitive force that drains and wastes resources. No man = more resources for Spawn.
Lavos does not care if we praise him. He is practically an all mighty deity (relative to humans of 1999 AD) who can defeat the Entity. He has no use for praise. Praise is not food or energy to him. Praise is just ignorant bastards trying to please him, except he does not wish it.
Lavos raised us like wheat, and it was time for the sickle to harvest it.
Lavos is a reproductive being who plans on expanded his species. Like all other organisms he follows a reproductive cycle.
The Lavos cycle is (Assuming Crono did not see the display in 2300 AD of the Apocalypse):
Birth (We do not know this of the great Lavos but the Spawn probably were born on the Earth)
Early Spawn Development (We see this of the Spawn of Lavos)
Departure from Birth World (We must assume Lavos did not start out in the middle of space and had a home world, and also that the Spawn would not see the Earth as a good place to stay)
Landing on New World (65 Mil BC)
Absorbtion and Analyzation of Life (65 Mil BC - 1999 AD, interuption at 12000 BC by the Kingdom of Zeal)
Purge of Life (1999 AD - Apocalypse)
Creation of Spawn (1999 AD - 2300 AD)
Death (1999 AD+ ??? People say by 2300 AD Lavos has died or at least retired from the grand scheme of things The only sign of Lavos left is Death Peak and his Spawn. We must assume he will die naturally, but we know he is not immortal because well you finished the game duh.)
Lavos simply is like any other animal except he can fly between planets, damn entire planets, manipulate dimensions, and is freakishly huge.