Mark 16:14 appears to support the ill-conceived notion that handling snakes is an outward evidence of having faith. Snake handling has a following in the rural southeast, where some Pentecostal preachers actually have taken poisonous timber rattlers into the pulpits, suffering numerous fatal bites in the process. Poisonous snakes are generally afraid of people, but will strike if they are "handled." The intent of this verse was the promise of protection (as the apostle Paul experienced in Acts 28:16), not a rash challenge to tempt God, expressly forbidden in Deuteronomy 6:16.