Better yet... NO Year 2000 problems!! :-)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: James Reynolds [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, October 24, 1997 5:12 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: Wildly off-topic: the end-of-world occurs this
> Sunday!
>
>      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