Religion--couple more thoughts

[c_voth312]

No: HPFGUIDX 40814

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "coriolan_cmc2001" <coriolan_cmc at h...> 
wrote:
> So the Judeo-Christian Bible recognizes the snake as having 
> shrewdness, as an instrument of justice, and a vehicle of divine 
> retribution, in addition to some of the scuzzier accusations it 
also 
> conveys. 

Perhaps the Bible recognizes this, but does its adherents?  The fact 
remains that the single most dominant reptile image in the Bible is 
the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.  There's also dragons, which are 
basically big snakes, and in Western legend are generally thought of 
as big bad nasties for the slaying.  So generally, in European 
archetype, snakes=evil.
There are exceptions, of course--in Greek myth (where again, snakes 
are primarily seen as monsters, or some component thereof), there's a 
physician who gains his wisdom when a family of snakes clean out his 
ears, enabling him to understand the speech of animals.  But on the 
whole, Medusa and company get more publicity.

~Christi