I got this in an email from a relative. Its a good read


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JUNE 6 FOCUSES ATTENTION ON "666" SUPERSTITIONS

Multimedia is available with this article online at
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-exe...ticle=79750009

Release date: Tuesday, May 30, 2006Contact: Mary Cochrane,
cochrane@buffalo.edu
Phone: 716-645-5000 ext 1412
Fax: 716-645-3765
"Let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for
it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six."
(Revelation 13:16-18, New Revised Standard Version)

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The number 666 -- the "number of the beast," according
to the Book of Revelation -- conjures devilish images for many, so
forecasts of evil, even doom, are rampant regarding dates or places
where the number occurs, including next Tuesday, June 6, or 6-6-06.

Fears of 666, long believed to be the dreaded mark of Satan, are based
on a "widespread misinterpretation" of the chapter in Revelation --
appropriately, chapter 13 -- in which the number is discussed,
according to a University at Buffalo expert on the origins, nature and
meaning of cults, superstitions and cultural identities.

Phillips Stevens, Jr., Ph.D., associate professor of anthropology,
explains that "like most superstitions, the avoidance of the numbers 13
and 666 are examples of magical thinking.

"People everywhere believe that things associated with other things,
through actual contact or just some similarity, have causal
relationships, even over space and time," Stevens says. "Things
associated with good events or great people can bring good fortune;
things associated with failure, disastrous events or evil people carry
some of that negativity with them."

And, like many superstitions, the one regarding 666 is based on
incorrect data: the "beast" referred to in the chapter is not Satan,
but, in fact, several other entities.

"Revelation is a complex and confusing book, and is rarely read closely
by lay people. Biblical scholars have pointed out that there are
several 'beasts,' in Chapter 13 and elsewhere, and they all refer
variously to Rome, Roman emperors and Roman cults of god- and
emperor-worship," Stevens says.

"Revelation" author, John of Patmos, traditionally believed to be St.
John the Apostle, was writing to other persecuted Christians in code,
according to Stevens, so "many of the strange elements in 'Revelation'
signify events, people or institutions familiar to first-century
Christians.

"The mark of the beast, 666, signifies those in thrall to the emperor
and thus opposed to Christianity, and is most probably the numerical
equivalent of the Hebrew letters for Nero," Stevens says.

The First and Second Letters of John use the term "Antichrist" to
denote lapsed Christians. Over subsequent centuries, the legend
developed that the "end times" would be foreshadowed by the arrival of
the Antichrist, an evil figure commissioned by Satan to prepare the
world for his coming.

"Many perceived enemies of Christianity have been labeled the
Antichrist, and Nero was one of the first," Stevens says, adding that
there is an ever-growing, ever-changing list of persons considered the
Antichrist that features "a long string of mostly historical figures --
Saladin was on the list, as was Hitler, and Saddam Hussein. The list
varies according to who compiles it. Early Reformation-era Protestants
had some popes on their list."

Chapter 13 in Revelation declares that the Antichrist was empowered by
Satan, who is described as a dragon.

"So, although 'the beast' is not Satan, in Christian tradition 'the
mark of the beast' was authorized by Satan," Stevens says. "And so,
like that other Christian superstition, Friday the 13th -- from the
Last Supper, where there were 13 people at the table, and the
Crucifixion occurred the next day, a Friday -- 666 has become a strong
taboo, avoided because of its negative association."

Generations have shunned the number to the point that it is erased or
changed if and when it appears, Stevens notes. Authorities have
re-numbered various U.S. highways previously numbered 666, and the town
of Bel Air, Calif., changed the 666 street number of the house that
President Ronald Reagan purchased upon leaving Washington, D.C.

Beyond mere superstition, many others believe conspiracy theories that
have cropped up regarding the number 666, Stevens adds.

"They believe the sinister number 666 is encoded in our nation's
banking system, in our medical and governmental records, and in our
very identity, in personal documents and in UPC bar codes -- this
latter is evidence of the fulfillment of Revelation prophecy," he says.

No surprise, then, that someone has found a way to make money off all
these fears: coming soon is a remake of the 1976 horror film, "The
Omen," the story of a modern-day birth of an Antichrist figure in the
form of an evil boy named Damien (the original starred Gregory Peck and
Lee Remick). Producers have scheduled the movie's release date for --
when else? -- next Tuesday, June 6, 2006.

Perhaps tickets should be sold for $6.66?

Meh nothing exciting happened...oh well better than the world ending and me not getting my birthday.

you never know. Maybe the antichrist was born on the 6th in some unknown village.

at 11:06 (the 666th minute), 7:06 (66 minutes after 6), or 6:06:06?

Yesterday meant nothing because the date was 6-6-06. The number of the beast is 666 with nothing in between. It was all unnecessary media hype.

That and it's in the gregorian calendar system which was invented about 500 years ago. If you're going to find anything in the date that you can interpret wouldn't you use the Julian calendar? That's what they were using before that.

The first beastly palindromic prime number is:
16661
The second is:
1 0(13) 666 0(13) 1

The same thing happened in 1906 and 1806, it's just that we where hear to live the day of June 6 2006, which nothing happened, except the Omen came out, but that wasn't exciting lol.

thank you!!!! theres been other 6-6-06's before I MEAN CALM DOWN!!! just relax; it's fine. nuthing can happen. nuthing could have happened. i mdae fun of it at 12:00 when it turned 6-6-06, oh wow imso scared. oohhh,... yeah so the next 6-6-o6 just remember, it's not 666!!!

On 06/06/06 at school, while we were playing dodgeball, something painful happened.
I got hit in the nuts twice in dodgeball. :'(