There are many, many instances in which some Christian missionary demonstrates that the superior powers of God compared with the lesser powers of pagan gods. Ireland abounds in tests in which the Druid priests do something impressive, and then St Patrick does something even MORE supernatural and of course, all the peasants abandon the Druids and their deities and then embrace Jesus. Some of these miracles are attributed to religious relics, a toebone of St. Ursula, a finger of St Stephen, and so on.
Then there are the instances in which the Christian priest cannot pull off his trick, and in these cases, of course, he is rebuked for "testing the power of God".
I have read several books in both Spanish and English of miracles of various saints, some of which seem to resemble are pretty lame parlor tricks. The Middle Ages was boring as Hell, and when the priests came to town, people expected some sort of show. Telling them they were all born in sin and were headed straight to the fiery pits of Hades was generally met fewer results than demonstrating of "wonder-workin' pawr", jst as faith healers get more converts than hellfire and damnation preachers.
Of course, after an earthquake, flood, forest fire, volcanic eruption or mudslide, the hellfire and damnation bit goes over pretty well. Most people generally all can be made to feel guilty of SOMETHING.
People in general, especially women, fear snakes. Some snakes are venomous, others won't even bite if provoked. And everyone knows that even small snakes can kill you. So snake handling has all the fixin's of an impressive religious sideshow. Lots of people like to watch impending disaster. That is the big draw for NASCAR and destruction derbies. Lacking old cars, Paul or some other religious sideshow act surely put on a snake handling fest, and people ate it up, so Paul, the ultimate PR dude, either tried doing it himself or recruited a snake handler who was successful at not getting killed.
Had the snake bit and killed the guy, then he would have been accused of "testing God" and put down as a heretic, of course, and snake handling as an approved test of faith would never have made it into the Bible.
I fail to see why I am not "serious"about debating religion unless I claim to be a whole hog believer. That is the problem with religious "study': it is not real study at all.
No chemist demands that I must swear that I sincerely believe that a penny will be dissolved in acid before being permitted to test the idea.
Today, I discovered that my neighbor's yappy little dog, that harassed me with nonstop barking by day and by night can be dissuaded from barking at me by squirting him in the face with a water pistol. This worked for about five minutes and then he was back yapping again. I then filled my trusty squirt gun with a 50-50 mic=x of vinegar and water and that shut him up for the rest of the afternoon. He ran away and hid on the other side of the house.
That is how Science works: pose a theory, then try to see how well it works. Now I know to shut up the yappy dog.
