People should be affraid of snakes

[sapphire_moon]

Ok, without reading the rest of everyone else's post I'm going to say my 2 cents..........I think the fear of snakes is a learned trait. I grew up hearing either all bad things about snaks, or nothing at all. My mother and grandmother (whom i was raised by) were absolutely terrified of snakes. Then one year when I was 17 my mom met someone who had an iguana. My now step dad rescued a bp that was being fed on crickets (don't ask, because thats about all I know!) And my mom all of a sudden decided to fullfill my 8 year wish of wanting to own a snake......now she is not scared of snakes. But my grandmother is absolutely terrfied of them and actully said a blood python looked like a giant colorfull slug! And will only pet the tail of my male bp IF I hold the the snake by the back of the head! So I think it is a learned trait..........

[Yve]

i think educating young people is the key to squashing this 'eeeeeekkk' bug. It is lack of knowledge that causes people to hate and fear snakes and other uncommon, uncuddly creatures. When i was a kid I was scared of snakes for the simple reason that the adults around me were scared and I figured they knew best (ya right!). I must have been around 12 when I was puttin around on the beach with some friends and we came across a lady that showed us how to catch a water snake and handle it so it would not get hurt...I was facinated!...i got bit too! but it wasn't the horror i thought it would be.....i've been interested in snakes and facinated since. One day, a few minutes, changed my outlook.

[Lizzy]

The media has such a huge impact on how people percieve snakes. How many of you watch fear factor? I don't lots because I get queezy watchinng them eat gross stuff, but in the very few episodes I saw, snakes were involved in a stunt. One time they had to lay in a box and have snakes dumped on them, and stay there for a few minutes. Guess what terrifying snakes they dumped in? Corns, kings, milks, and the odd python. I mean really. None of these snakes were going to hrm the person whatsoever. I was more concerned with the snakes harming eacother or getting harmed by the needless conditions that they likely had to endure...being held in a giant bad to be poared over a person who was wiggling and thrashing.

The other stunt involved snakes being poared into a giant pool, and the contestants had to brave the snakes to recover things from the botom. again, only harmless snakes were thrown in, but the real clencher was a 15 foot albino berm. Oooo, so scary. Again the snakes were all held in a big bag and then dumped into a pool with no way out. How many drowed do you think?

It was so stupid watching these people be scared of such harmless creatures, and showing the world that they were creatures deserving of such a fear. I was so pissed off about it all.

Lizzy

[corr]

Beardonicus, I didn't mean "harmless venomous". I meant venomous snakes and harmless snakes. Now that I reread it, I wasn't very clear there.

There are many passages that clearly single out "venomous" snakes. If all were venomous, then God wouldn't make this distinction. It wouldn't be neccesary.

Deuteronomy 8:15
He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions.