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Poster: Mr. Obvious
Subject: RE: "Snake handler" preacher dies....of snake bite
Body:


Brian wrote:

The whole snakehandling thing just comes from an aside in Acts (and which as a book is patently obviously not reporting history - it is trying to resolve contradictions between Christian sects that existed at the time).

Snakehandling makes sense if you see religion as a set of costly rituals that signal cultural/group commitment with sunk costs rather than a set of empirical claims.


To be fair, I believe most Snake handlers quote Mark 16:17-18 as the main justification for their practice. Drinking strichnine is also fairly common. They also quote Luke 10:19 and sometimnes practice walking on snakes, although this is not as common as handling them. I am not aware of which Acts passages you are referring to, although Pentecostals do make heavy use of Acts in general.

Just as an aside, it appears that the passage in Mark is a later scribal addition, so I am not sure why it is considered authoritative.
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