Good Christians only may answer...

[Minimalist]

so 14 people in 70+ years...

Isn't that a far cry from fakers claim of people dying all the time? more people died in the last hurricane by almost double. why make such a dubious claim?

It wasn't my claim. Yes, it's a far cry from "mountains" of deaths, but it is pretty fucking stupid to handle poisonous snakes because an old book tells you that you can.

Especially as that passage was added centuries later by some nameless scribe because he thought ( correctly) that "mark" needed a better ending.  Xtians are so loose with their scripture one might almost think of it as diarrhea.