666

Revelation 13:18: "Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty six."

So 666 represents the antichrist?

If you really have nothing better to do, you can find 666 in many company logos, and some are deliberately camouflaged (although we've no idea what benefit that gives!)

Take, for example, the seemingly innocuous company Toys "R" Us, where you can buy a Scooby-Doo Zombie Island DVD for $9.99 (inverted 666).

Focus on the "Я", a backwards "R", the 18th letter of the alphabet (18 = 6 + 6 + 6). Notice also that it is centred on a pentagram.

You might like to ask them about these subliminal messages; their New York store number is (631) 666-6611¹. Sadly for conspiracy theorists, however, apart from the children's Halloween costumes, there is not much more to link this multi-billion dollar company with the occult.

666 happens to be the area code for thousand of businesses and as the company reports² show, the stores are opened in whatever area is likely to be profitable. There is no commercial advantage, or disadvantage, with having a certain telephone code.

666 hidden in the Triquetra. But it's not really 666, since the third '6' is reversed.

In 2008, the company began significantly reducing the lead content of paint used on their toys. The controversial phthalates, used in plastic manufacture and linked to reproductive problems, are prohibited by Toys "R" Us. Their line of environmentally friendly products include natural wooden toys and organic cotton dolls, coloured with natural dyes, and packaged in 70% recycled material. Millions of dollars are donated to children's charities³.

Hardly Satanic, is it.

The pope has often been accused of being the antichrist. For one thing, it's obvious that the antichrist comes to us in disguise. And what better disguise than the pope himself! (Revelation 12:9 'Satan, which deceiveth the whole world')

Then again, the antichrist could be anybody who doesn't look like an antichrist.... Hmmm. Let's see what other 'proof' there is.

"Imaculada" (by Murillo)
(Click image to enlarge)

One of the most popular popes, John Paul II, was known as a very Marian pope. Images of Mary are often shown with a white crescent moon at her feet. And the name of the Mesopotamian mythological moon god was known to the Akkadian as ... Sin!

The Minaean moon god was also known by the name 'Sin', and here's another Sin: The pope's equivalent in the Philippines was the Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Sin.

But like all Christians, Roman Catholics are all sinners, saved by grace.

Ah yes, that upside-down cross favoured by the pope. This is commonly known as Satan's Cross, because it points downwards to Hell.

And then there's his bent cross - all twisted and mis-shaped.

But actually the bent cross is to remind us that Jesus was crucified on a rough wooden structure. And the formal name for the upside-down cross is St. Peter's Cross, named after the first pope, Peter, who was crucified on a cross. At his own humble request, Peter was hung in the opposite orientation of Christ.

I guess that rules out the Satan's Cross theory. But let's look at just one more attempt to prove the pope is the antichrist:

The pope is 'Vicar of the Son of God' and in Latin (the language of the Vatican) this is Vicarius Filli Dei. Now most of us don't know much Latin, but we recognize from a clock face that 'I' corresponds to '1', 'V' corresponds to '5', and 'X' corresponds to '10'. There are a few other Latin (and Greek and Hebrew) numbers represented by letters: 'L' is 50, 'C' (century) is 100, and 'D' is '500'.

So with that code, we can calculate the value of Vicarius Filli Dei. Ignoring the letters that have no numeric value (a, r, s, F and e) and reading 'u' as 'v', since the Romans didn't have a 'u', we see that Vicarius is 112, Filli is 53, and Dei is 501. Add those three numbers together and we have (ta taaaa!) six hundred and sixty six.

The problem, however, is that Vicarius Filli Dei is not actually the pope's title; just a title made up by people who want to support their Catholic-bashing arguments. It would be fun (although pointless) to take names or titles of other famous people and see if their numeric value adds up to 666.

Some scholars believe that the 666 in Revelation points to Nero Caesar, since the Hebrew characters of that name add up to 666. Others contend that his name should really be transliterated to 665 or 616.

1666, the year of the Great Fire of London.

But not such a tragedy. Although 90% of the city burnt down, a relatively small number of people are reported to have lost their lives. It gave a good opportunity to rebuild better quality housing and was credited with ending the plague.

Did the preceding '1' of '1666' nullify the evil?

Many have tried to explain why the number is 666, and some have gone on to associate any occurrence of 666 as being apodeictic proof of evil.

For example, if you add the value of the six current Japanese coins (1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500 yen - which happen to coincide with all the Roman numeral values less than 1,000), you get 666 yen. This proves beyond all doubt that the Japanese monetary system is based on evil.

Well at least, it proves to those people who want to believe such things; a shaky conclusion based on just a subset of Japanese currency. If we also add the current Japanese notes of 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 yen, our total is 18,666 yen and our evil theory goes awry. Sure, 18=6+6+6, but the 2,000 yen note was introduced to celebrate the year 2000 and has practically disappeared from circulation now. And come to think of it, the 500 yen coin is relatively new.

Evil is jealousy, envy, hatred, and all the other unethical judgments or immorality we care to muster. It is not something that can be inherent in objects such as coins, or in systems such as money.