You know about the "meaningfulness" of the new millennium from "First, It's a Symbol"? Well, a lot of people seem to see meaning in Y2K as a cause of world disaster at the turn of the Millennium.

Although Y2K is usually seen as a purely technological problem, something for technological people to be concerned with, not religious people, some others think that there's more than just a coincidence here.

There seems to be a strange sense of connectedness here and there between Y2K and millennialism.

Some are skeptical about Y2K because it almost seems too perfect for an end-time millennial story. Some even think the whole Y2K thing is a hoax.

It seems to scripted for our particular time in history, too good of a symbol for the end of this century. The idea that the world will come to an end because some computer programmers weren't thinking of a year that ends in "00" -- computers, our twentieth century false idols? -- the whole thing seems too much like a screenplay to be taken seriously.

On the other hand, some people seem to almost welcome a Y2K world-wide disaster because they can see this as a way that God could be using technology to bring about the end of the world.

There is the acronym for the worst-case scenario making the rounds in the Y2K circles -- TEOTWAWKI -- The End Of The World As We Know It.

Some people interpret certain Bible verses as prophecies that the forces of evil are supposed to have used technology before the final battle of Armageddon that ushers in the new age.

Don't forget, of course, that some of these prophecies could be self-fulfilling in creating a panic that creates shortages and other disruptions that keep snowballing until they reach global proportions.

Aside from that, most of the extreme reactions to Y2K do seem to be more based in religion than technology. A message from God to make a point about placing too much value on man-made technology? Are we forgetting about a few (hundred?) other things seemingly much more dangerous than technology.

Well, we won't have any real answers about this for a while, but we'll see.

Written by Georgia L. Bell. Copyright Georgia L. Bell, 1999. Permission to reprint this article -- uncut, unaltered, and in its entirety only -- is granted only if all information in this notice, including link to New Millennium Three Year Celebration Website and copyright notice, is included as it is written. First published on The New Millennium Three Year Celebration on the WWW. -- http://www.site901.com/ -- jeorjia@site901.com.

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