So...Guess this means that we don't have to worry about setting the
     System clock back to Standardtime this weekend...:O)

     James Reynolds
     [log in to unmask]



______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Wildly off-topic: the end-of-world occurs this Sunday!
Author:  <[log in to unmask]> at internet
Date:    10/24/97 5:01 PM


In keeping with the recent commemoration of important dates, I thought that I
should mention that the world has been expected for several hundred years now
to come to an end, this Sunday, October 26th, at 6:00am, London Time -- just
to give you fair warning.

A great number of people thought that this event would occur last year, on
the 26th -- but they found themselves to be in error. The cause of the error,
as has been discussed here before, is that there was no Year 0.

Three hundred and fifty years ago, in 1654, the most reverend Archbishop
James Ussher calculated, based on the genealogy portrayed in the
Judeo-Christian Bible, that the world was created in 4004 BC. That date of
creation was later refined by Lightfoot (who's first name has been lost to
history) to have occurred at 6:00am on October 26, 4004 BC.

Ussher also calculated that the end of the world would occur in 1996, based
on the statements that recur rather frequently in the Bible that "one day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (although
this particular phrase is from 2 Peter, Chapter 3). In concordance with
Ussher, Lightfoot set the date of the Earth's destruction ("when Satan shall
be loosed out of his prison") as Oct 26, 1996, probably at 6:00am, London
time, also.

The problem with both Ussher's and Lightfoot's calculations were that they
both forgot that there was no Year 0, thus the year that they chose for the
end of the world was off by one year. As it occurs, this is the right year --
and this Sunday the right day!  -- maybe.

There may also be a second problem with Lightfoot's calculations. He did his
work around 1700 (exact date unknown). What that means is that he had the
choice of two calendars to work from, the Gregorian or the rectified Julian.
If he used the Julian calendar, as was the custom in England at the time,
then his date for the end of the world is also off by about 14 days, pushing
it into early November. If he used the Gregorian calendar, then this Sunday
is the day. In either case, all of the current discussion about support
issues may be moot.

Or, alternatively, the book of Revelations could still be right -- but things
really won't be that bad. The Great Satan let loose on the world in this
epoch could be merely Bill Gates.

Wirt Atmar