George J. Laurer - 666 Controversy

666 Controversy

The Universal Product Code has bit patterns at the beginning, middle and end of the barcode called "guard bars". Laurer is often asked about the resemblance of these guard bars to the coding of the numeral 6. Some people see the three sets of guard bars as encoding the number 666, which some fundamentalist Christians see as a sign of evil.

Laurer addresses this on his website:

Answer- Yes, they do RESEMBLE the code for a six. An even parity 6 is:

1 module wide black bar 1 module wide white space 1 module wide black bar 4 module wide white space

There is nothing sinister about this nor does it have anything to do with the Bible's "mark of the beast" (The New Testament, The Revelation, Chapter 13, paragraph 18). It is simply a coincidence like the fact that my first, middle, and last name all have 6 letters. There is no connection with an international money code either.