was that world history was divided into three parts, each two thousand years long. Two thousand years from the Creation to some major event in Bible History (I can't recall now which one). Then two thousand years from THAT event to Jesus, and then another two thousand years to the Second Coming. The factor "3" appears frequently in Biblical numerology (the Trinity, etc).

So it all fits in with the End of Times apocalyptic scenario so popular with fundamentalists these days.

If the '6000' figure is related to the Jewish Calendar, then I still have some time to get my affairs in order.

I hate to sound so flippant about all this, I'm not really hostile to theism as a concept or belief. As I've often pointed out, although I'm inclined to believe there is no reason to believe there is a Supreme Being, neither can the concept be ruled out altogether, there is some circumstantial evidence to support it, and it is no more ridiculous than any of the alternatives proposed by science or philosophy

What I find so unacceptable about the idea is the absolute certainty and precision which religionists bring to the question. Not only do they know the truth, they know the exact truth to the last final detail, and anyone who doesn't accept it totally is doomed to suffer in agony for eternity, while they get to frolic in Paradise with their harps, or wings, or 72 virgins, or whatever.