On Sun, 12 Apr 1998, StanSquncr wrote:
The following is from an email which I received from a Christian group in Israel this morning. I think it makes for interesting reading ...
I agree, completely ridiculous, but interesting nonetheless. The following comments aren't directed at Stan, just statements on the body of the forwarded email.
IMPORTANT WARNING ABOUT PRINCE CHARLES
The following is a list of overwhelming evidence which supports the theory that Prince Charles is the biblical antichrist. Although at first glance, this claim may seem ridiculous, the facts speak for themselves.
Yes, ridiculous at first glance, and second glance, and so on. What is even more ridiculous is that these groups refer to these numerological coincidences as "mathematical proofs" of the identity of an "antichrist". Numerology only works if one sets up a favorable framework. Into this framework one can place a theory or idea to be given significance, something to be proven or believed. I concede that this antichrist framework is only somewhat interesting in that it uses 'gematria' and the ancient Hebrew numeral system to "prove" its case. Gematria is a strange sort of number magic which arose from the fact that the numeral system was made up of the letters of the alphabet. Early civilizations quickly realized the dangers this close relationship of math and language could cause, and evidently is still causing to this day. :) I'm sure the unfortunate ancient citizen whose name added to 666 would agree. Mathematics would have moved forward much more quickly had early mathematicians not been faced with this mixture of numbers and language. Pat Hensley Engineer, Mindspring Enterprises <sig line omitted>