[GarterGuy]

Pretty much it's a fear that is taught to us and some of it might be instictual??? It's actually a good survival attribute to be "afraid" of snakes. Snakes CAN kill you, so naturally wanting to leave them alone or get away from them could be considered a good thing. Problem is that this then turns into hate and the thought that they are our enemies....this is where things go wrong. Also, snakes are very "alien" to a lot of people, they just don't know anything about them and people usually fear what they don't understand. I won't eve get into the whole Biblical snake issues, but yeh, they're there too. Like anything else that's "different" though, it just seems easier to fear and hate then to take the time to learn about them and understand them. Unfortuately a lot of people take this stance on a lot of things.
Roy