(Newser)
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These aren't the best of times, but the state legislature in Virginia is debating whether they might be end times. The involuntary implantation of microchips in people might be the biblical “mark of the beast,” a Virginia state legislator contends, and should be outlawed. Now, “I’m not a theologian,” Republican Mark Cole contends that privacy is the main reason he’s sponsoring a bill, but “there’s a prophecy in the Bible that says you’ll have to receive a mark ... in end times.”
“Computer chips might be that mark,” Cole tells the Washington Post. As the theory goes, chip implantation by employers and government for information gathering or monitoring could lead to a totalitarian state, controlled by the antichrist, similar to the one foretold in the Book of Revelation. “This is part of a larger attempt to constantly read current history in the light of the symbolic language of the Book,” an expert says. A foe of the bill is less charitable. “At least when Nero fiddled, they got good music.”
