06/06/06

Today is 6th June 2006 which you can abbreviate to 6/6/6. Ordinarily this is just a date but very attractive numerically because of the triple 6s. But for christians, the number warrants attention is said to be connected to the Mark of the Beast. I remember this as more than 20 years back, one of my then favourite group when I was studying in England was the Iron Maiden, a heavy metal band. One of their more famous songs was the 'Number of the Beast' and I think the chorus more or less go like (this is a test of my memory) "...666 the Number of the Beast, Hell and fire was spawned to be released..." and repeated towards the end "...666 the Number of the Beast, 666 the one for you and me, I'm coming back I will return, And I'll possess your body and I'll make you burn, I have the fire I have the force, I have the power to make my evil take its course..."

As I type those lyrics down, I can't quite believe what I am retaining in my memory and I can't for the life of me imagine why Iron Maiden would be among my favourite groups in those days. I didn't even dress up as a head banger! Another movie that I remember when I was studying in Singapore before going off to England was 'The Omen' - it was the movie about the birth of the antichrist and I remembered there was a 666 somewhere in that movie.

I once asked a Christian friend about it and he said that in the Bible, it stated somewhere that is the number of the beast. If you googled 666, you will get lots and lots (I mean really lots) of articles about this number. There is a lot of beliefs out there. One site talked about how a number of people have superstitions or phobias about this number. One person refused to ride in a car that had a license plate with 666 on it. Another person adds a stick of gum or something to his purchases if his check-out total at the store is triple six in any way. When President and Mrs. Reagan moved out to California, their house number was 666. They had it changed to 668. Any time a bill numbered 666 is produced by a governing body like the UN or Congress, prophecy watchers give the document a good going-over to see if it has a connection with end-time events.

Wikipedia had two interesting stories about the number. One about when the giant CPU manufacturer Intel introduced the 666 MHz Pentium III in 1999, they chose to market it as the Pentium III 667 on the pretext that, since the actual clock speed was 666.666 MHz, 667 was the more accurate approximation—conveniently ignoring their own usual rounding practice: as examples, consider the earlier 66.666 MHz 486-66, the 466.666 MHz Celeron 466, or the later 866.666 MHz Pentium III 866. Another was the U.S. Highway 666, "the Highway of the Beast," was renumbered in 2003 after controversy over the supposed reference to the Biblical beast, which also made the road signs a common target for theft.

This belief despite efforts to make the correction (I learnt that the bible was translated from Greek and the Greek numeric system apparently do not have zeroes, so the 666 described was the Greek 666 and not the same as today's decimal system 666), a lot of people still seemed to believe in it. This is known as an argumentum ad populum which is Latin for "appeal to the people", in logic, is a fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges that "If many believe so, it is so." In ethics this argument is stated, "if many find it acceptable, it is acceptable." It is also the basis of a number of social phenomena, including communal reinforcement and the bandwagon effect, and of the Chinese proverb "three men make a tiger".

And you thought 6/6/6 is just an interestingly numbered date!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Oh no!Another me!

"Woe to you, Oh Earth and Sea,
for the Devil sends the beast with wrath,
because he knows the time is short...
Let him who hath understanding reckon
the number of the beast for it is a human number,
it's number is Six hundred and sixty six"

I left alone, my mind was blank.
I needed time to think to get the memories from my mind.

What did I see, can i believe,
That what I saw that night was real
and not just fantasy.
Yeah!!!

Just what I saw, in my old dreams,
Were they reflections of my warped mind
staring back at me.

'Cause in my dreams, it's always there,
The evil face that twists my mind and brings
me to despair.

The night was black, was no use holding back,
'Cause I just had to see, was someone
watching me.
In the mist, dark figures move and twist,
Was all this for real, or just some kind of hell.
666 the number of the beast.
Hell and fire was spawned to be released.

Torches blazed and sacred chants were praised,
As they start to cry, hands held to the sky.
In the night, the fires burning bright,
The ritual has begun, Satan's work is done.
666 the number of the beast.
Sacrifice is going on tonight.

This can't go on, I must inform the law.
Can this still be real or just some crazy dream.
But I feel drawn towards the chanting hordes,
They seem to mesmerize...can't avoid their eyes,
666 the number of the beast.
666 the one for you and me.

I'm coming back, I will return,
And I'll possess your body and I'll make you burn.
I have the fire, I have the force.
I have the power to make my evil take it's course.
Anonymous said…
ک ف ر

Ada one of the hadiths which predicted the coming of the Dajjal, it said he would have a mark on his forehead, which would be in arabic, that spelt out Kuffour. Except, the letters would be seperated, sorta as if it were Hebrew, looking like the characters above; a kaf, a fa, and ro'.

Isn't it interesting how the mark sorta resembles a 666, albeit very distorted. Mcm, the Ro' if you turn it upside down sorta looks like a 6. The Fa is practically a 6 sideways. and the Kaf again looks like a 6.

iunno just seems interesting.
Anonymous said…
I can relae to this article. That song will keep on playing on your head as long as you can remember. I think the tunes are very invigorating to persons that likes Heavy Metal songs. I like the tunes of Heavy Metal but I dont usually remember their lyrics. Its a choice of not wanting to know since most the reference are the dark side of life.

Like my second siblings said, it is somehow related to the forehead of a Dajjal which looks like Triple Six where infact it says Kufur. Its an interesting topic to read about Dajjal. Ive read one book by Mohamad Yasin Owadally 'Emergence of Dajjal the Jewish King' which is simple and will not take more than 1 hour to finih the book. It tells where Dajjal is now and when will it rise to claimed himself as the ruler of earth. What struck me is the height of Dajjal where in the book it says the deepest sea on earth will not pass his ankle. You can imagine how tall he is. Its also said in the book that people change from believers in the morning to non believers nightfall. There is a sign nowadays that Doomsday is near. A small sign that one day will become chronic if its not 'controlled'. Its very freightening thought if it happens one day. Im praying that it will not happen in my lifetime and I wont live to see it. If you are interested in finding or reading the book, you can get it in Solitude Book at Mall Gadong. Or you can see how it look likes through this link.
http://onlineislamicstore.com/b5720.html

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