Wednesday, May 30, 2012

And the Darwin award goes to...


In a stunning example of nature beating nurture I read today of a "flamboyant" Virginian pentecostal pastor "Mack" Wolford who organised an outdoor service for a group of his followers and as was his habit he also laid on a bit of snake handling, no doubt to add gravitas to the proceedings. Unfortunately for Mr Wolford the yellow timber rattle snake hadn't read the script and bit him, he stopped the show and retired to a friends house to recover (apparently he's been bitten before) unluckily for him and even more tragically for his family he didn't recover and after a frantic call for "prayer" on Facebook when it was realised that he was in trouble died that same evening.

So, what should we learn from this Christian tale?

Firstly don't mess with poisonous snakes, evolution has sculpted them that way for a purpose and it clearly wasn't to test the strength of another species belief in the supernatural (just ask a mouse). Second, praying doesn't work, never has, never will so if you get bitten by a poisonous critter then get your righteous backside down to A&E for a shot of anti-venom as fast as your demon fearing, tongue twisting, laying on of hands, poison popping legs can carry you.

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