Why are humans inherently afraid of spiders and snakes?

Not me in particular. In fact if I see a spider in my house, I'll capture it and set free outside. Expecting it will kill other nasty ass bugs. Fuck, I'll kill a roach or fly or mosquito without even blinking an eye.

I could tell you.








But then I'd have to kill you.

I once went hiking in the mountains in PA and thought I was about to step on a tree branch but it was a black snake!!!

That was the only time in my entire life when I was paralyzed with fear. Not good! I ended up jumping back and throwing rocks at it then it left. :D

i wonder if way way way back they were huge, like the size of a horse or something. so we have it deep in our cells to be afraid

....

Spiders and snakes are comrades you know

Nope

Biggest spider ever was perhaps 2 ft across

~360 million years ago

....

...think deeper, darker, more METAphysical....

Probably because they can be poisonous...but I remember when I was a little kid, I used to play with spiders, pick them up and let them crawl on me no fear, then I saw this movie with giant man-eating spiders in it and after that they freaked me out...so some of it is also social conditioning, learned behavior.

yup

Yes, the fossil record indicates that insects grew to several feet long. And of course we know about dinosaurs. And of course, the Bible is correct in the chronology of the earth, in that it is only 7000 or so years old, and man co-exsited with these creatures. Think of it that way, it perfectly explains our fear of insects and snakes.

Your fear of snakes is for obvious reasons. They will kill you.

Spiders less so... yes there are some deadly ones but the vast majority can't hurt a human too much. People think it's because their angular features and fast, irregular movement is what causes people to fear them. Humans don't like something that they can't tell when/how it's going to move.

It's built in to us to be afraid as they can kill,if your afraid you will not go near them will you,

Doesn't explain Charlotte's Web....

it makes no claims regarding that and gives no timelines

That'll do, pig.

...

That'll do.

Whatever, give or take a few thousand year. But certainly man contemporaneously existed with "dinosaurs". That is undeniable.

Made me cry in school. Especially because my mom was the teacher. I don't need therapy I swear!

Meh, doesn't explain why we're not instinctively afraid of cats (like lions) or hippos.

In fact, hippos kill more people than any other creature on earth.

Additionally, the earth had a different rotation around the sun. A 'day' could have been god knows what during creation. pun.

Think about this - A billion years from now - a day will be like 45 hours - so basing the whole "7 days" thing is silly.

No telling what type of orbits it had around the sun while it was getting slammed by other planets and asteroids during 'creation.'

Totally how I feel!

Spiders keep the other crap out. Although, I do not like these really bright red ones... they are KOS.

[link to img199.imageshack.us]

[link to en.wikipedia.org] They eat woodlice.

hippos are prey to humans and have been for a long time. Yeah they will fuck up an unarmed human but we've been hunting Mammoths for millions of years.

As for cats, if you see a lion stalking you, believe me, you will be afraid.

[link to www.youtube.com]

Looks much more closer to this...

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Compare my photo to that, but what's odd is that wiki claims that they are not native to Ohio...

I suspect it's, in general, caused by women (no offense). Back in 'the day' when most people lived in very primitive conditions women were responsible for the safety of the homestead/camp. In these conditions spiders and snakes could easily ninja in among the children and were a constant safety risk. Not all were dangerous but it's easier to just be afraid of them all so I think thousands of years of mothers passing on this fear has pretty much stuck.

[link to www.google.com]

So some guys lived to be nearly 1000 years of age (over 2000 years ago), but the whole planet is only 7000 years old?

lol

btw i had no idea of the species or family name... haha you're a smarty pants

damn it - how do you embed images? :) sorry