Free Republic

Satanists from around the world gathered in Hollywood for a mass to mark June 6, 2006, or "6-6-6," and to mock fears over the date known by dark believers as the number of the beast. The sold-out evening high mass also commemorates the anniversary of the organizing group, the Church of Satan, founded by Anton Szandar La Vey in 1966 who was dubbed "the black pope" by the press. "Satanists from around the globe are converging on that city-of-the-damned known in common parlance as Los Angeles," the group said on its website. The mass, an original three-act dramatic ritual, will...

(AP) Is Tuesday's date — 6-6-6 — merely a curious number or could it mean our number is up? There's a devilishly odd nexus of theology, mathematics and commercialism on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year. OK, it's just the sixth year of this millennium, but insisting on calling it 2006 takes the devil-may-care fun out of calendar-gazing. Something about the number 666 brings out the worry, the hope and even the humor in people, said the Rev. Felix Just, a professor of theology at the University of San Francisco. A Jesuit priest, Just has...

With June 6, 2006, rapidly approaching, authorities in Colorado and elsewhere are carefully watching to see if that date - 6/6/06 - spurs demonstrations or violent activity. They are aware that 666 signifies the Mark of the Beast or the Antichrist to some organizations and believe June 6 is a date that could trigger problems. "It's been a conscious question among some of our folks, so they've been on the lookout for something," said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety. "But they haven't seen anything." Even so, some local police are being vigilant. "The bottom line...