I’m not buying it. The original questioner, John Glenn N.T.A. was using “ward off lightning” as shorthand for what he explicitly said in the second sentence in the question, and which you quoted:
No “magic” involved. I don’t think it’s fair to accuse him of misunderstanding the question.
The other person you quoted is Cecil himself. Reading the totality of his answer, I don’t think he misunderstands the question either.
a skeptical one is the one who called it a misunderstanding and magic and accused people of not understanding the question. I just pointed out examples of “ward off lightning” vs “act as a ground path”.
I know a skeptical one is the one who called it a misunderstanding. I’m not buying that either Cecil or John Glenn misunderstood anything. So TriPolar’s question of who had that misunderstanding still stands.
The question from John Glenn in the column seems to bring that up, but I think it was reasonably stated as an attempt to find an alternate theory, or was just not serious. Perhaps that is what **a skeptical one **meant, but I have no idea. I don’t see any other evidence of a misunderstanding, but the phrase ward off was used in the column and I suspect that’s all **a skeptical one **was referring to.
Also, **a skeptical one **seems to have joined to make that one and only post.