Why People Are Afraid Of Snakes

[David802]

Some scientists/psycologists theorize that the fear of snakes is something they call pre prepaired learning. Basically we have developed an instinctual fear of snakes because of the constant threat they created to are species in the wild.

I personally think its a very likely and interesting explination for the fear of snakes most people have.

Its just a theory, but its starting to build up steam. This was a facinating article I read about a year ago, it was released in the March 2008 Association for Psychological Science Journal. It also gives quite a few other article names that go further indepth about this theory.

http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/delo...s%20(2008).pdf

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

And the jesus fish is actually a symbol of the age of pieces. It is also theorized that jesus was a pieces.. The fear of anything is started and provoked by others. If you are raised around these aimals and taught about them at an early age, you are not afraid. Its actually quite easy to help people get over their fear simply by giving them info and allowing them to interact with your snakes over time. I just got over my fear of handling scopians all by myself. Just decided I wanted one and picked her right up. Got home and handled her for a bit and I like her alot.

We just need to work with people who are afriad at their own pace. Educate and when/if they're ready, let them interact with one.

[tonkatoyman]

Ever wonder WHY early christians chose the snake in the story of the garden of Eden? In pagan religions the snake was a symbol of feminine power/wisdom. The early Catholic church chose the snake purposefully as a means of establishing women as second class citizens. Choosing a pagan symbol made sense since the Church grew by converting pagans.

My mom studied theology for a while and told me about this. Pretty interesting I think.

I'm sorry but the early Catholics may have tried to put women down. I honestly do not know but Satan is called a serpent because the oldest known copies of the original Hebrew writings called him that. Trust me if the early protestants could have found evidence of this they would have changed it. Also many times since there have been people to go back and re look at the writings. It would have been caught and changed long before now.
Also just so you all will know the first visual representation of the predicted Christ was a serpent on a pole in Exodus created by Moses at the direction of God.

I believe the fear today comes from many sources...
1. fear of the unknown.
2. To the uninformed they are sneaky. (Watch out for snakes when you go in the woods)
3. Hollywood has done a great job of villainizing them in horror movies and sci-fi flicks.
4. The fear of the venomous ones and the inability to tell the difference. Also the fact that they are hard to see in their natural environment.

These are some but there are probably more.

[tonkatoyman]

And the jesus fish is actually a symbol of the age of pieces. It is also theorized that jesus was a pieces..

Monica I'm sorry, but while the age of Pisces is symbolized by the fish, the Jesus symbol actually originated during the Roman persecution of the Christians. Two people would stop and talk on the road. One would draw half of the symbol in the dirt with a stick, his toe or some other object. if the other person was Christian he would complete the symbol by drawing the other half. It came from Jesus calling the disciples to be "Fishers of Men". Most of them originally were fishermen by trade...
By the way as one who used to have snakes thrust in his face as a kid I concur that we need to allow people to approach snakes at their own pace. GOOD POINT.

[Zach]

I dont know about the whole religous thing but i know plenty of people that have a fear of snakes for no reason (probably because there different) . But a way to undestand it is to look at something you fear and try to put yourself in the peoples shoes that fear snakes. take something you fear and apply it to snakes and you'll see.

for example im pretty dam scared of spiders LOL for no reason not religion not anything like that i just dont like the ugly little dudes, there nasty, and when i look at that and see how it scares me and then put myself in someone elses shoes and apply that fear to snakes i understand why people fear them better, and then i try to show them how cool and nice snakes actually are!

Maybe one day someone will introduce me to spiders better and show me that there not that bad but i doubt it.

just my take on the subject.

[barres]

BTW, there is also a reference in the New Testament:

And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."

I just wanted to clarify that what I was getting at is that there are some Christian groups who use venomous snakes as part of their worship based on this passage, further showing that a fear of snakes is not universal among Christians.

Ever wonder WHY early christians chose the snake in the story of the garden of Eden? In pagan religions the snake was a symbol of feminine power/wisdom. The early Catholic church chose the snake purposefully as a means of establishing women as second class citizens. Choosing a pagan symbol made sense since the Church grew by converting pagans.

My mom studied theology for a while and told me about this. Pretty interesting I think.

It would be somewhat difficult for early Christians to choose a snake in the story of the garden of Eden, since the story is part of the Old Testament. Now we have no "original" (Hebrew) manuscripts of the Old Testament, but there is a Greek translation of the OT, called the Septuagint, that pre-dates Christianity and includes the story of the garden.

[mr. s]

Ever wonder WHY early christians chose the snake in the story of the garden of Eden? In pagan religions the snake was a symbol of feminine power/wisdom. The early Catholic church chose the snake purposefully as a means of establishing women as second class citizens. Choosing a pagan symbol made sense since the Church grew by converting pagans.
My mom studied theology for a while and told me about this. Pretty interesting I think.

In academics, it is important to point out that which is documented or which is theory. As has been explained, this story predates christianity......by quite some time. Now, it may be interesting how this connection can be made, but without further explanation, it seems unfounded. I'm sure your mother learned that the christians did not write the Old Testament.
I don't think that I would specifically label the early christian church, up to maybe 100 CE as being more suppressive than the general cultures at the time. A great respect was clearly present for women mentioned in the New Testament. As far as the Catholic church under the Romans later on, I don't think they had need of suppressing women more so than was already common practise. But I guess it would come down to opinions in the end.
I also appreciated the mention that a very important symbol of Jesus from the old testament was the serpent in the time of Moses. Along with that, I believe it was Christ who encouraged people to be, "wise as serpents and harmless as doves".
(Sorry for hijacking the thread).

[Evenstar]

Interesting thread and timely too. As it happens, I asked several of my friends just the other day to explain why they didn't like snakes. Nearly everyone I know is rather grossed out that I now own one, so to help me understand their fears/aversions, I flat out asked them what it is about snakes that turns them off so much. Here are some of their answers...

1. They're slimey (we know they're not, but others who've not truly been introduced to them think they are).
2. They move funny.
3. Their eyes creep me out.
4. They move (strike) so fast!
5. They slither.
6. Their tongue is weird/gross.
7. They bite all the time.
8. As a Christian, I just don't like them because of the fall of Adam and Eve!

That last answer was from one of my very dear friends and I have to admit I was really surprised to hear it. I am also a Christian and, ironically, most people in our church are actually not put off by my python at all. But my friend is and I thought it interesting that this really is a valid, if not common, reason for disliking snakes.

The other answers were, I thought, quite amusing actually. But I am attempting to see things from their point of view and respect their feelings so they will hopefully be more receptive to education.

Another thought is that reptiles are so different from warm-blooded mammals. They do move differently, their eyes are different, there is a coldness about them that isn't like a dog or a cat or other mammal. They are just different and we as a society tend to fear what is different or unknown. Just my thoughts....

[A.VinczeBPs]

Same reason people are scared of things like sharks.
Media, and common misconceptions.

Most people who are scared of my ball pythons seem to believe they'll strike at them, or strangle them.

-After 5 minutes of looking at me handle them they think differently.
-After touching them (sorta petting, like they would a cat) they realize they're not cold (amazed how many people think they're going to be freezing cold) or slimy, but smooth and room-temp.
-After more than one visit, most are even willing to try and hold one, normally a sub-adult.
-After a couple tries, I let them hold one of my friendly adult males or females.

Now all my friends tell others what they have learned, and I often have friends of friends wanting to visit for a look.

Once misconceptions are gone, people fall in love, or at least lose their fear.
I now have a bunch of people on any-time call updates for when my females lay a clutch, they find the eggs fascinating!

Another odd fact (personal experience only): males seems to be less afraid of them to begin with...However, when a male is afraid, he takes far longer than any of my girl-friends to man-up and hold one.

[Wildman09]

I didn't read the original post, but can answer the question...

They are afraid because 1- They are afraid, they hear snake and automatically think "Big/Mean, it's a danger to my family,pets yadda yadda yadda"...or 2- They are just not informed on the different species and the the basics, like how big they get, their temperment (90% have puppy dog attitudes) and just assume they are just nasty things that will strangle or kill anything they can get ahold of..

I'm kinda dealing with this situation myself, my wifes Mother is pretty scared of them and FINALLY let me get one after giving her some knowledge about the species...She was concerned about the baby...LOL...I told her the snake is MORE likely to get hurt then the baby will ever have to worry about....

But yeah, it's mainly from being UN-Informed or just Closed Minded to this GREAT and WONDERFULL hobby of OURS...

-Wildman