IT'S TUESDAY - 060606!! DO YOU SUFFER FROM HEXAKOSIOHELEKONTAHEXAPHOBIA?!

APOCALYPSE AGAIN?
THE END IS NEAR, AND IT'S TIME FOR A DEVILISH TUESDAY...
From American Atheists  

If you suffer from **hexakosiohelekontahexaphobia** - the fear of the number 666 - Tuesday would be a good time to stay in bed.

As Boston Herald writer Laura Beckham Falcone notes, "Whatever you want to call it - Satan's calling card, Beelzebub's area code, the number of the beast - it freaks out even the most secular of souls. Many folks are fearful of Tuesday, when the calendar will read 06/06/06."

The reference is to a passage found in the Book of Revelations stating: "This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six."

...Scholars have found references to a different number, "616," but 666 has endured the test of time, and today is widely considered "the number of the beast” or the “Antichrist”.

...In early colonial America, the most popular book was a collection of poetic verses by Michael Wigglesworth titled, "The Day of Doom." Wigglesworth (1631-1705) graduated from Harvard and was appointed a minister in Malden, Massachusetts. He excoriated the Puritans for their "backsliding" and proudly identified himself as a "Fool for Christ." His 224 ballad stanzas warn of an imminent day of judgment ("doom") following the return of Jesus. American history became punctuated by other outbursts of apocalyptic angst.

William Miller (1782-1849) was a freethinker-turned-sectarian preacher (I HATE when that happens!) who predicted the apocalypse for his own times and galvanized a huge following. Despite this classic failure of prophetic insight, the Millerite movement was reincarnated into a cluster of new sects including the Jehovah's Witnesses. That organizational thread wound through the decades to the formation of the Branch Davidians and the conflagration at Waco, Texas.

Today, belief in a coming apocalypse is astonishingly pervasive. The bizarre has become main stream even in the United   States, a country founded on important Enlightenment principles affirming reason, science and critical inquiry. A Time Magazine/CNN poll revealed that 59% of respondents believed that the events described in Revelation would come true shortly. Nearly one-quarter said that the Bible "predicted" the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

 

…Many speak of bizarre events such as the "Rapture," where chosen believers literally fly off to heaven before a period of persecution they call the "Tribulation." …There have been claims that strident apocalyptic views drive White House foreign and domestic policy, and may even affect the votes of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.  …After moving out of the White House, Ronald and Nancy Reagan changed their address in the fashionable Bel-Air neighborhood of Los   Angeles from 666 St. Cloud Road to 668.

 

He's Baaaaaack - Damien Returns Tuesday. 06-06-06, will also mark the release of what 20th Century Fox hopes to be a summer cinematic blockbuster, the remake of the '70s thriller

"The Omen." Starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and David Warner, the 1976 version featured the birth of the young Antichrist and his antics as a satanic toddler.  It was the ultimate "kids are hell" horror flick. Murders and what a reviewer described as "unholy situations" follow. The film web site is @ Heed The Omen ...

Meanwhile, End Times huckster & wingnut Tim LaHaye's latest book, "The Rapture" is being promoted on his web site with an ominous "06.06.06 - Will You Be Ready?"

 "I don't think that people understand that 666 is not a good time," LaHaye told reporters. He describes the harbingers of an upcoming "period of tribulation" that foreshadows the pesky deeds of the Antichrist, the persecution of Christians by a one-world government, and the rise of a global church led by a "false prophet."

GLOSSOLALIA: THE GIFT OF GIBBERISH

So what is glossolalia - or SPEAKING IN TONGUES?!? To me it sounds like a bunch of made-up words, spoken in such a way that they sound as if the speaker is using a real but unrecognizable language. Color me SKEPTICAL...

Bible 411  quotes from an article in the Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation entitled “An Ethnological Study of Glossolalia” by George J. Jennings, March 1968. He mentions that glossolalia is practised among at least seventeen non-Christian religions of the world, a fact noted by Bible 411 with the wry comment “Certainly we wouldn’t attribute Glossolalia in these heathen religions to the work of the Holy Spirit.”

There ya go, Hoss: When Christians babble a bunch of unintelligible phrases it’s because they are infused with the HOLY GHOST, but all those other folks are nuts, and maybe heathens!  As a matter of fact, if someone close to you starts speaking in an "unknown tongue", you should have them checked - SOON.  Often  speaking in gibberish is  a symptom of schizophrenia - and they have meds for that.

Da Rev has attended Pentecostal services and witnessed the phenomenon - along with layin' on of hands and "healing" by the preacher. This guy wasn't Benny Hinn, but he had a definite flair for that particular type of show-biz.  

 As a party turn, Da Rev has been known to toss off a plausible facsimile of the phenomenon, incorporating the phrases, “neenie-rocka, neenie-rocka” and “abba-dabba-dabba aerostar”. Of particular note for sheer entertainment value, try to catch the well-known sleazey televangelists, like Jimmy "I HAVE SINNED!!" Swaggart or the Robert "NOBODY SEEN ME STEAL NOTHIN'!" Tilton babbling away on-screen. Jimmy goes into a trance and begins dancing like those Indians in the western movies gettin' ready to attack the white men, and calling out, "She-Hepzibah, she hobba bobba..." At one point I swear Ol' Crazy Bob Tilton exclaimed, “Kowwabunga Dude” – a cry made famous by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

WELCOME TO DOOMSDAY

By Bill Moyers           

There are times when what we journalists see and intend to write about dispassionately sends a shiver down the spine, shaking us from our neutrality. This has been happening to me frequently of late as one story after another drives home the fact that the delusional is no longer marginal but has come in from the fringe to influence the seats of power. We are witnessing today a coupling of ideology and theology that threatens our ability to meet the growing ecological crisis. Theology asserts propositions that need not be proven true, while ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. The combination can make it impossible for a democracy to fashion real-world solutions to otherwise intractable challenges...

It's a SUNNY day! Just perfect for loadin' up the kids & headin' for the beach... if spartan little SUV can MAKE it!

Yeah, the Czechs merged it with VW - BUT...

Good fortune. COMMENT! Please spread the meme. Don't smoke in bed...