The Deadliest Poison

My seven-year-old son Nemi asked me what is the world deadliest poison?

I was taken aback by his question as this is a mature topic. I said I’m not sure but maybe the deadliest toxins are from snakes - viper, king cobra and the black mamba. He later told me that he had read about Komodo dragon in Indonesia and that their saliva contains deadly poison. I thought he was referring to the bacteria but to my surprised upon research – yes! these giant lizards secretes different toxic proteins.

Though I told him most likely the deadliest poison is something invented by humans – perhaps by a mad scientist.

The next day, once more by whim he brought up the “deadliest poison” topic and again, I said to him – no, it cannot be a Komodo dragon as venomous snakes are much lethal – king cobra single bite can kill within 30 minutes if left untreated.

Then he concurred – it must be an invention of humans when he recalled on my “mad scientist” argument – he apparently read something about mad scientist. That settled our debate.

Then it got me curious – what is really the deadliest poison in the world?

Google it and the top three – Ricin, Botulinum and Polonium.

1. Ricin is a deadly poison extracted from castor beans.
2. Botulinum is produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria.
READ THIS: A tiny amount of the same toxin is found in Botox, which freezes muscles into place to minimize wrinkles.

3. Polonium a heavy radioactive element discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie.

But the Bible also teaches that man possesses a different kind of deadly poison. What! How?

James 3:8 - But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

Many years back, I recalled a preaching on this verse – the preacher said the human tongue is so deadly that it can do damage even from a far away distance. The ill words, lies, cursing, propaganda, broken promises, etc. are so destructive – it can target people across the globe and hurt them painfully, slowly – some comes very quickly and wipes the smile out of your face in a snap - then a war zone.

The tongue is the oldest effective weapon known to man - it can erupts and spews without warning. It can travel in all mediums of communication unabated and can reach its target regardless of time and season. It can even hibernates for generations then wakes up again and sounds like new - full of deadly poison.

If use for good - it produces the best of man but if use wrongly – it will produced the worst of man.

Nemi was stunned when he heard it's the tongue the deadliest poison of all.