Storm Scopes
Many higher performance General Aviation airplanes beginning in the eighties used to be equipped with a cheaper alternative to weather radars - Storm Scopes. Unlike our radars which detect wet precipitation, storm scopes worked more like ADF's by tracking areas of electrical discharge in clouds. Some airplanes were even retro-fitted with both storm scopes & weather radars by extravagent owners. To identify areas of high electrical activity (and hence likelihood of lightning strikes), Storm Scopes are probably better than weather radars. In essence however, both of these types of equipment serve to identify where the storm is, and hence their avoidance - not to encourage penetration of it.
As to the effect of lighting strikes on a person, much has already been said. The Physics description of this is a "Faraday Cage" - where the electrical current is conducted around the metallic exterior of the vehicle, not the inside, thereby protecting the occupants.
I once had a lighting strike on a B777 passing 13000' during descent through "green" radar returns. It struck on the right side just behind the radome. The First Officer was none the worse for it, as was the airplane. Up till that time, i was privately skeptical about how a highly electronic airplane like the 777 would hold up in a lightning strike - as it turned out, there was not even a flicker in any of the instruments EFIS/FMC/AFDS/COMMS/RADAR/stby compass.... nothing. Once on the ground i discovered where it struck and the only thing was a couple of burned out static wicks. I've been a fan ever since.