THRILL SEEKERS Why the Fatal Attraction?

Flirting With Death

Then there are those who have a passion for flirting with death in other ways.  There are motorcycle stuntmen who defy death and serious injury by jumping over 50 cars parked side by side or over a number of huge passenger buses or over a wide canyon.  One such stunt-man reported that he had broken 37 bones in his body and had been in a coma for 30 days.  He said:  "Broken bones or arms mean nothing to me any more. .  . .I've had twelve major open reduction operations. That's when they cut you open and plate or screw in. I suppose I've had about 35 or 40 screws put in me, to hold the bones together.  I'm always in and out of hospitals." Once when he was injured in a practice run and was unable to attempt his jump over a number of cars, the crowds booed to show their disappointment.    

Many thrill seekers take part in extreme sports, including death-defying stunts such as climbing the sides of city skyscrapers without safety equipment,snowboarding down  steep 20,000-foot mountains, bungee jumping of high towers and bridges, parachuting out of airplanes while strapped to another jumper's back, or climbing sheer ice-covered cliffs withe nothing but a pair of small pickaxes in their hands.  "I expect to lose three to four friends a year," lamented one ice climber. These are just some of the death-defying stunts that have become  popular in the sports world.  (more like the world of stupidity-someone who has no respect for the life that God gave him) "It is the chance of a  catastrophe that makes extreme sports so enticing," declares one writer.  (Why don't they just go ahead and commit suicide, that is basically what is going happen anyway.  And the people who want to watch that garbage is just as bad as the one that wants to do it. These people, not brave but stupid people who do that, their luck will run out.) 

"Even the most extreme of extreme sports  are booming," wrote U.S.News & World Report magazine.  "Sky surfing, in which expert parachutists perform circus-worthy twists and turns on graphite boards whole free falling from 13,000 feet, didn't exist in 1990; now it attracts thousands of devotees. And a sport known as BASE jumping (for Buildings,m Antennas, Spans, and Earth), officially established in 1980, now lures hundreds, who parachute-often illegally and at night-off fixed objects such as radio towers or bridges." This sport  has already taken dozens of lives.  "There aren't many injuries in BASE jumping," said one seasoned jumper. "You either lie or you die."     (Yes, this is definite something Satan would put their head to do.  This is not a sport, it is pure outright stupidity and lack of respect for God's gift of life.)

Rock climbing up the sheer sides of mountains with nothing but tiny finger-holds and toeholds is attracting thousands.  (The audience is no less dumber than the stunt person here or any so-called death-defying activity, because they know that they will not be the one to die; and also the ones cheering on-and think about this; they are cheering on for that person to die, plus paying to watch it as well.)  Even television and magazine commercials advertising everything from trucks to headache remedies show climbers hanging precariously from steep mountain  precipices hundreds of feet in the air, secured only by a thin  rope.  It is reported that in 1989 some 50,000 people in the United States dared to take part in this sport; more recently an estimated half-million are drawn by its fatal attraction.  Worldwide the numbers are increasing.  Note: Well, you can't fix stupid! 

Next time: THRILL SEEKERS Why the Fatal Attraction/Conclusion of Flirting With Death

From the Awake! magazine