Some advice for the holidays

Debate Room
22

I see your points, but I have something to add to the reasons behind snake handling.

Every minister generally wants to fill pews in church on Sunday.

With this in mind, people often have a gruesome side that makes them want to slow down to look at car accidents. This impulse is probably related to the same reasons why people like horror movies.

So . . . snake handling may be a gimmick to fill pews with people who secretly want to see if someone gets bitten and/or dies.

I ran this idea by an Evangelical Christian friend of mine, and his answer is that itā€™s such people who need church the most.

23

My cousins are lunatics. Their ancestors, a splinter from the original immigrant families, voluntarily settled near the last operating lead mine in the US.

24

Yet another demonstration that education in the U.S. sucks.

25

For the education system to work one has to attend classes or do valid independent study. Not happening with my hillbilly cousins.

26

Itā€™s selection bias, usually using a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy to rationalise it. ā€œI prayed to a deity for the snake not to bite me, then the snake didnā€™t bite me, ipso facto goddidit.ā€

As you say, when the snake has a bad morning, and shows itā€™s displeasure, suddenly god is mysterious. You canā€™t dent a rationale like that. Plenty of people handle snakes without the pretence of a watching deity, and come to no harm, but then they have usually studied the reptiles for years, and have a deep respect for what they can do.

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27

I havenā€™t discussed religion with my cousins since I was seven years old. Even then I could tell they were nucking futz.

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