I generally don’t get involved with such absurdities as this, but I just couldn’t resist this time. For one, I drink energy drinks quite often. For another, while I have no issue with religious beliefs, I do have a problem with those who profess a religion while being wholly ignorant of what the religion actually teaches.
[extoc]
Gematria
For those who have not seen the video circulating around Facebook, the general idea is that the three lines that make up the “M” on the Monster can comes out to 666. How? It’s through a concept called gematria. It’s a system which assigns numeric values to letters and then uses them to calculate the numeric value of words and phrases. The idea that numbers have significant power is a very old religious concept. The Jews borrowed it from Assyrian-Babylonian culture. In the case of the “M”, the three lines look a lot like the Hebrew letter vav, which is more or less eequivalentto the modern v/w. The numeric value of vav is 6.
Additive Value
The problem arises with the fact that we are used to the modern (really Arabic base 10) number system. However gematria does, like most older number systems, lack a concept of a “place”. There is no 1’s place, 10’s place, etc. Instead, the system is additive. Therefore three vavs in a row does not equal six hundred and sixty six, the so called mark of the beast. It actually equals 18. Interestingly enough, the number 18 is very important in Jewish faith because in gematria, the Hebrew word for life, chai, also equals 18. Therefore the “M” in Monster should really be seen as a sign of good luck, if you really wanted to read it properly in terms of gematria.
BFC
This leaves “BFC”: the name of a ridiculously large can that Monster sells. As one might guess, it means big f*cking can. While people may have an issue with having such a phrase on a can, that in no way implies that it is the devil’s work. My only real issue is that it should probably be FBC rather than BFC; the word “f*cking” should really act as a modifier for “big” rather than for “can.” But what do I know? I majored in mathematics and science, not English.
Know your Religion
I won’t even bother mentioning the rest of the arguments. They are just as contrived as the first two. The general point that can be made from all of this is that, if you are going to profess a religion, make sure that you actually know and understand the religion. That alone would reduce the amount of conflict between various religions.
Further Reading
1. Spice of Torah-Gematria (Amazon.com)
2. Survey on Religiosity (Politicoid)
3. Classification and Analysis of Religion (Politicoid)