By Jennifer Brooks, Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON — There's a name for it — hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia — fear of the numbers 666.
If you look hard enough, you start seeing 666s everywhere. In bar codes at the supermarket — mark of the beast? In product logos. Encoded in the names of the famous and the infamous. And, of course, on the calendar.
June 6, 2006. Sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of this century. Spooky, no?
The Bible itself has done the math, and six-six-six adds up to evil. That's the number, according to the Book of Revelation, by which the Beast, the Anti-christ, will be known.
This could be one devil of a day. Or not.
"There's nothing to get upset about," said Baptist preacher Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind series based on the prophesies of Revelation. The final book in the series, The Rapture, is being released, naturally, on June 6. "Everyone knows that the rapture event will not take place on 06/06/06 because Jesus prophesied that no one knows the day or the hour of His return."
Still, when the Bible puts a numerical value on evil, people are going to get squeamish.
On June 5, 2003, New Mexico renumbered its share of the 190-mile-long U.S. Highway 666 — sometimes called "The Devil's Highway" — into the less ominous Highway 491, with Colorado and Utah following suit. The old designation was scaring away tourists, state officials said.
If the world doesn't end today — and since it didn't end on June 6, 1906 or in the year 666, we're probably safe — there will be plenty of other things to do. There's a rare Tuesday opening for the remake of The Omen, a 1976 horror film.
Afterward, you could cruise through a maternity ward and check newborns for the mark of the beast. Or do the math on famous names to see if they add up to 666 — as Bill Gates III does, if you do the calculations in ASCII computer text.
The Church of Satan will be holding a high mass at the Steve Allen Theater in Los Angeles, just to mess with people's heads.
"We are not afraid of 666, nor do we hold it in any particular regard," notes a press release on the church's website. "Historically, 666 is the name of Emperor Nero reduced to its numerological value ... Satanists think this is quaint."
What's really happening, said Joe Barnhart, professor of philosophy and religion studies at the University of North Texas, is that people are searching for patterns and meaning in a world where both may seem in short supply.
"People are just trying to make sense of their cosmos," Barnhart said.
2 comments:
When people I talk to at work have a 666 in their account numbers, they always use cadence to break it up: "three nine six...six six two," etc. When I read the numbers back I always string them together: "three nine six six six two!" Because I'm thinking "you've got a 666 in your account number -- that's so cool!"
The BBC has a funny article about today's date. Click here.
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