i'm a good ol' southern baptist and I absolutely adore snakes. My religious views dont change my views of snakes one bit but that doesnt mean that all of us see things the same way. Most everyone else in my church cant stand snakes...not for religioius reasons..but because they were brought up in the "chope head off first..ask questions later" mindset.

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-Adam

"Help Protect our Planet from Overcollection, Purchase Aquacultured Livestock and Captive Bred Herps"

Yeah it's to bad people don't ask questions first and react to them after they have the facts

I spent many years studying various religions and can also confirm that the majority of them have references to the 'evil' nature of snakes either directly or through parables. I went so far as to prepare for seminary school with one Christian church (the flavor of which is really unimportant) before deciding that the spiritual rather than religious path fit my beliefs better.

That said, I've always thought that snakes (and even spiders to some degree) get a bad rap from religion and mythology. I believe people see their natural traits: solitary, stealthy, emotionless, etc. as something to fear. In trying to rationalize their fear, they search for similarities to something else and finding nothing, label them 'evil' as it is a broad brush stroke that covers what they feel is an unquestionably acceptable thing to fear. To simplify it: If Evil = Fear, and Snake = Fear, then Snake = Evil.

My current belief is that snakes are created perfectly to add balance to their individual ecologies. Call it God, Call it Nature... I call it beautiful.