"The Mark of the Beast" Written 11-26-06

“Mark of the beast”

            This quote comes from Christian doctrine and refers to the number 666, and in the myth of the antichrist refers to a physical marking used to differentiate followers of the antichrist and the followers of god. The actual form of the mark is the subject of debate among those who wish to ignorantly look into a theoretical future.  All of this background interests me minimally at best, but the phrase “mark of the beast” can have a very simple translation and I choose to look at it in a nontraditional way.

            The only beast that has periodically destroyed ‘anything’ and ‘everything’ at whim and for little natural benefit is mankind. Now by anything I mean, for example, that a man in his deepest despair is capable of horrendously irrational decisions manifested by destructive actions: rape and murder come to mind most readily. Anything refers to anything that will satisfy a need or desire. Drugs, money, and food are all motivations that can take over positive social constructions like dignity, decency, or morals. The beast lies within us and like animals we are interested in survival.

            Now by everything I mean that history has shown that warring peoples destroy life on a scale that not even the most explosive volcano, most destructive earthquake, terrible tornado, or any other natural disaster could overwhelm. Today’s weapons technologies have put the world in a state of paranoia and for good reason. If more than one country were to successfully detonate a large nuclear bomb then all human races would, by my prediction, be doomed.  

            The mark, as I choose to loosely translate it, refers to any physical mark that distinguishes one person from another in a unique way, whether it’s a birth mark, a face, a fingerprint etc. Today’s science knowledge has made advances in this area. To be specific, fingerprints have been used to solve crimes. Fingerprints are left behind anywhere a human has been unless they use some strategy to hide these traces, whether it is for sinister means or not.

            Nevertheless, fingerprints mark people and people are beasts to themselves, each other, and everything else. Take a fingerprint analysis and if you can determine that it comes from a human than you have found the mark of the beast. The same goes for anything that identifies humans such as DNA, artifacts, and ancient structures. These are marks on the world and we are the beasts that make them. Whether or not the bible successfully predicts a mark related to the devil we have already shown ourselves to be capable of the worst things.