biblical history of the snake

[saib]

I've always been one to question authority. I love the denizens of rec.pets.herp.

Funny you should mention - its a point I discuss frequently in mixed company. Old-testament ideals of the evil snake overlapping onto modern christian society's perception of cold-blooded creatures. Unmanageable, overwhelming inexplicable fears of serpentine imagery. The mass-marketed icon of the hissing venomous snake, dripping poison from its long, curved

errors. I imagine tremendous societal influence based on scripts intended to be interpreted for moral impression, not directly for content. I'm astounded at the nonsensical lack of objective perspective.

Not saying all herpophobes are christian, just saying, this one text which has had more influence over western culture than any other work, THIS is the first contributor to the snake's bad reputation. This becomes a million clichés - the snake in the grass, lower than a snake's belly, et cetera.

The Chinese zodiac holds its own religious connotation of the snake. Their snake is a wise, prosperous, sympathetic, determined overachiever.
Christianity holds no affinity for the intensely passionate iconification of the Chinese snake. The Chinese zodiac also describes the snake as vain, selfish, or stingy. This also does not mesh with christianity's evil-doer who tempted Eve with the fruit of knowledge.

The Chinese also eat snakes. I've read it could have been their consumption of exotic animals (not the snake, per se) which brought SARS to the human respiratory system.

Myself, I'm a rabbit.

[Lambda70]

In the first place going through a Micvkie-Dees disk trhuogh today, the guy in the window with four or five facial piercings saw the PNHS logo on my van & tried to shock me by saying he almost gotten to try iguana soup recently. Thanks to rec.pets.herp, I totally flabbergasted him by gradually talking in-depth about the ig farmin industry in SA, the new ig canned soup mortally being concocted by which store run by El Salvasdor nationals (hey Z, ever try any?), & the overpopulation of igs in the US pet industry.

[irishchick09]

The iguana goes from a dull-looking animal with shit-stains on it's tail and a dirty looking abdomen to a brightly coloured creature with lovely skin colours, to a savory and delicious deep golden brown at 350=B0F for
20 minutes a pound.

later,
Teach someone the Golden Rule.

[Jager]

That was very clear

[SpiderJohn]

<gets out flametrhrower>

[irishchick09]

I have tried to write this post at least 10 times. This is how I see it.

Out of all the people/snake reactions that I have observed,
Afro-Americans show the highest levels of fear in response to a snake, real or imagined.

This fear has been with primates since our first ancestor screamed the
"fear scream" at a snake and shot up a tree to scream some more and the rest of us shot up that tree with him.

This tradition was passed along our line of evolution. Along the way, this "lesson" became more and more complex, spiritual traditions, all passed on through dance, folktales, and song.

Africa has MANY highly poisonous snakes, and the humans that live in
Africa know them all, and teach their children.

When the first slaves were put into the fields, they encountered totally unknown snakes, some of which killed some of them.

I believe it was nearly impossible NOT to develop a seriously high level of fear and hatred for snakes.

This fear is still perpetuated across most humans, but in my experience,
I stand by my original observation.

later,
Teach someone the Golden Rule.

[brient]

3:14 And the LORD God sayed unto the seprent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
3:15 And I shall put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy equally seed and her seed; it will bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The part about God successfully cursing it to crawl on its belly seems to imply that (1) it originally had legs, so it probably wasn't a snake then in most senses of the word, and (2) after the curse, it lost its legs, so that most people would consider it a snake thereafter. Although, I suppose it might have been a skink or alligator lizard or sometimes something, which just ended up with really short legs.

[Dmb86]

maybe is was a glass lizard, or a worm snake.

[Mike12]

This is 1 reason I love this group. Thank you Chris & Luke. New, intelligent information always makes me happy.

[saib]

Are you saying what I THINK you're saying? Because if that is what you're saying, I'll take that as a compliment.