So what are your chances of being struck by lightning?

Fortunately they are pretty slim. But that's probably what hundred or so people killed by lightning in an average year probably thought.

So while you or I are most unlikely to be struck, consequences are so severe that it's worthwhile taking every precaution to make sure that we don't end up a lightning statistic.

A Few Lightning Facts

• Although lightning is known from volcanic eruptions and in smoke from very large fires, it is always present in thunderstorms, and thunderstorms can occur anywhere and at any time of year. In US they are most common in Florida and nearby states, and overall are most frequent from April to July. Lightning fatalities are most common in July, probably because more people are out of doors at that time of year.

• Lightning is a very high voltage electrical discharge, with its source in a thunder cloud. Most lightning moves between clouds, or from cloud to air. The cloud to ground strikes are rarer, but are ones to worry about.

• Apart from floods, lightning causes more deaths than any other severe weather event, including tornadoes and hurricanes. Figures are not precise, but around 100 deaths occur in an average year, while injuries are at least ten times that number.

• Lightning injuries are most common before and after storm has passed over - before and after rain, winds and hail have caused people to take shelter. Another reason is that lightning bolts can travel distances of over 10 miles (16km) from cloud before hitting ground.These "bolts from blue" may arrive before any thunder from storm can be heard, and even before storm clouds have been noticed.

• Deaths and injuries occur most commonly to outdoor workers, hikers, campers, and people involved in outdoor sport or picnics, including sporting teams. Quite often, victims have delayed finding shelter until last minute.

More information on lightning can be found at my website, http://www.home-weather-stations-guide.com/lightning.html

Deaths and Injuries

A lightning strike is a very short lived, high voltage electrical current, but has different effects to a home or industrial electric shock. Most lightning fatalities are instantaneous through failure of heart or breathing, or severe nervous damage.

Parallelism Between Adam's Rib and Science

There is an amazing coincidence between numbers in Book of Genesis involving creationism and numbers in science regarding man's evolution from ape. The parallelism begins on Bible quotes according to which God took out one of Adam's ribs and made woman, Eve, with it. "And Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up flesh in its place. Then rib which Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to man."

The number of ribs - Men have 24 ribs - 12 on each thoracic side. The same number is found in women. The text says that God removed one rib and not one pair of ribs. Had He indeed removed only one rib, man would have different numbers of this bone on each side of his chest. Not only that, but there would also remain a doubt about number of ribs in a female.

These contradictions disappear if text is examined from standpoint of information conveyed by Jesus Christ to His disciples: "To God nothing is impossible". God may have removed one of Adam's ribs but He did it in such a way that woman and all her descendants would have same number of ribs. However, it is assumed that rib's removal is symbolic language and explained it cannot be regarded as direct language.

A look at it now from standpoint of science. The chimpanzee, from which science now admits that man has evolved, has 24 chromosomes in its sexual cells, i. e., 24 chromosomes in each spermatozoon and 24 chromosomes in each ovulum. This is referred to gametes, those sex cells capable of reproducing species. Therefore, number of ribs in a man and of chromosomes in a chimpanzee are identical. The other cells in a chimp, as in a human, are diployd, that is, they have chromosomes in pairs - therefore, they have 48 chromosomes.

Confluence of Book of Genesis and Human Evolution Timeline

Were we to admit that rib symbolizes chromosome, implicit and explicit Bible numbers say that God removed a chromosome from a chimpanzee and made a woman out of it. In other words, "man", a chimp, lost a chromosome and thus a woman was formed. Indeed, woman, just like man, has one chromosome less than a chimp in sex cells. The human spermatozoon has 23 chromosomes and human ovulum also has 23 chromosomes. It makes sense. The other cells in human being are diployd, i. e., they have 46 chromosomes. But it is needed to see what science says regarding man ape evolution, that is, man's evolution from chimpanzee. Man's evolution from ape - It is admitted that, in evolution of species, through some unknown phenomenon, two chimp chromosomes were fused and thus, primitive man, a hominid, came about. Some theories claim that female came first, which, if true, would give further consistency to symbolic version of Adam and Eve's story.

In a nutshell, this is what matter has: • Number of ribs in human being: 24 • Number of chromosomes in chimp's gametes: 24 • Creation: removal of one rib. • Evolution: fusion of two chromosomes. • Rib symbolizes chromosome. • Removal of one rib = fusion of two chromosomes. • Number of chromosomes resulting in gametes: 23 - New species: man, hominid.

Without wandering too far from these basic issues, it should be asked why there are so many differences between human and chimp, given "simple" fusion of two chromosomes. Furthermore, those in favor of creationism would argue that, since similarity between a chimp's DNA and that of a human being is above 98%, humans and chimpanzees ought to be more alike. These are pertinent questions which must be carefully examined.

Starting with numbers: difference between human and chimp DNA is less than 2%. For three reasons, this percentage can be very meaningful:

the science is just barely beginning to understand human genome, that is, DNA map, that of genes and each one's role. On other hand, researcher know also little about chimp genome. Thus, it is perfectly acceptable that this percentage, though small, means much in terms of anatomical and physiological differences between species;

the differences may be situated in fundamental parts of DNA, enough to cause differences between species;

the amount of DNA in cells is not always proportional to their complexity. Therefore, arrangement of DNA components in humans may be more important than quantity.

Thus, slightly less than 2% difference between chimps and humans may become more meaningful. The "simple" fusion of one species' two chromosomes may cause many differences in resulting species.

Why is Bible not explicit? - In other words, why, since issue was raised in beginning of this article, does Biblical message not speak directly about chromosomes? At least two answers are possible.