The Occident doesn't believe in the devil anymore. Or if it does believe in him, it doesn't fear him. You might say the devil and his power to inflict suffering are grossly under-appreciated in the West today.
Yet though the devil is under-appreciated, he's still a great marketing and conversation piece, as evidenced by all the frenzied attention being paid to this year's June 6th.
The approach of the sixth day of the sixth month of a new century's sixth year has prompted animated discussion among women participating in the website of Mother & Baby, a British parenting magazine.
One pregnant woman, Francesca Renouf, said she had been so worried that she had booked a doctor's appointment to ensure that she would avoid giving birth on the sixth.
Others appeared to take the dangers less seriously. One woman, Emma Parker, wrote that she intends to call her baby Damien, after the satanic boy in The Omen. Another, Donna Magnante, said she would name her baby after Regan in The Exorcist. . .
[A]nother website claimed that the Antichrist had already arrived – he is supposedly George (six letters) Walker (six letters) Bush Jr (six letters), the president whose name adds up to 666. “The violence and destruction that began when Bush first entered office is now certain to culminate in the apocalypse, as predicted in the Bible over 2,000 years ago,” warned Stephen Hanchett at isbushantichrist.blogspot.com. . . .
John Moore, the Irish director of The Omen remake – entitled Omen 666 – realised that June 6 was too good a date to miss for a film about a sinister child named Damien who turns out to be the Antichrist. “It's a fantastic marketing gimmick,” Moore said. “We figured if we could hit this date it would make it all the more interesting.”
