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5/6/06, the day before the beast.
Jun. 5th, 2006 10:26 amThere's been a lot made of the fact that tomorrow's date is one of the most anticipated and feared in recent history.
That's right, Lordi are releasing 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' as a single on the morrow.
The number '666' has a bit of a bad reputation. It comes from the Book of Revelations, Chapter 13, Verse 18: "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding calculate the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
The wisdom that is being referred to is the ancient science of gematria, which is still practised in some esoteric parts of the Hebrew and Islamic faiths; it is the science of calculating numbers from names. Of course, most uses of it these days (such as George (6) Walker (6) Bush Jr. (6)) are incorrect applications because most people don't know what the 'number' and the 'wisdom' actually refer to. Correctly applied, gematria can be used to identify roman Emperor Nero as the Antichrist (Nero Caesar in Hebrew is NeRON QeiSaR; adding up the letters we get ``the number of the man'', 666), and as Revelations was written during the reign of Nero it's not unlikely that he was the original intended recipient of the accolade.*
Of course, this hasn't stopped the more bonkers end of the internet predicting that the mere date is a harbinger of the end of times and taking a particularly humourless view of a chance occurence. After all, if you were an Omnipotent being, you'd choose a charisma and grammar-free loon on the internet as the person to announce the end of your creation, right?
Right?
And they say God has no sense of humour.
Others are taking the date with more of a sense of humour. The towns of Hell, Michigan and Hell, Norway are both having big parties to get the tourists in, although some even object to that. One resident of Hell, Michigan was been quoted as saying "'Here I am living in Hell, taking my kids to church and trying to teach them the right things – and the town where we live is having a 666 party.'"
Obviously, this is someone who has never read their Saint Augustine, who said: "The one thing the devil fears most in your laughter"
There's a certain amount of fear online on the Fundamentalist websites that the date tomorrow might inspire Satanists. I would be more inclined to take this fear seriously if it weren't for the fact that every devil-worshipper I've ever met (and I've met a few) hadn't been such an out-and-out wanker. One of them, when I slagged him off, threatened to put a curse on me. In response, I gave him some of my hair and told him to get on with it.
I'm still waiting.
*Although some Biblical Scholars claim that '666' is a mistranslation and the real number should be '616'.**
**Amusingly, it appears that Viagra has a molecular weight of 666. This makes me laugh.
That's right, Lordi are releasing 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' as a single on the morrow.
The number '666' has a bit of a bad reputation. It comes from the Book of Revelations, Chapter 13, Verse 18: "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding calculate the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
The wisdom that is being referred to is the ancient science of gematria, which is still practised in some esoteric parts of the Hebrew and Islamic faiths; it is the science of calculating numbers from names. Of course, most uses of it these days (such as George (6) Walker (6) Bush Jr. (6)) are incorrect applications because most people don't know what the 'number' and the 'wisdom' actually refer to. Correctly applied, gematria can be used to identify roman Emperor Nero as the Antichrist (Nero Caesar in Hebrew is NeRON QeiSaR; adding up the letters we get ``the number of the man'', 666), and as Revelations was written during the reign of Nero it's not unlikely that he was the original intended recipient of the accolade.*
Of course, this hasn't stopped the more bonkers end of the internet predicting that the mere date is a harbinger of the end of times and taking a particularly humourless view of a chance occurence. After all, if you were an Omnipotent being, you'd choose a charisma and grammar-free loon on the internet as the person to announce the end of your creation, right?
Right?
And they say God has no sense of humour.
Others are taking the date with more of a sense of humour. The towns of Hell, Michigan and Hell, Norway are both having big parties to get the tourists in, although some even object to that. One resident of Hell, Michigan was been quoted as saying "'Here I am living in Hell, taking my kids to church and trying to teach them the right things – and the town where we live is having a 666 party.'"
Obviously, this is someone who has never read their Saint Augustine, who said: "The one thing the devil fears most in your laughter"
There's a certain amount of fear online on the Fundamentalist websites that the date tomorrow might inspire Satanists. I would be more inclined to take this fear seriously if it weren't for the fact that every devil-worshipper I've ever met (and I've met a few) hadn't been such an out-and-out wanker. One of them, when I slagged him off, threatened to put a curse on me. In response, I gave him some of my hair and told him to get on with it.
I'm still waiting.
*Although some Biblical Scholars claim that '666' is a mistranslation and the real number should be '616'.**
**Amusingly, it appears that Viagra has a molecular weight of 666. This makes me laugh.
