For millions of apocalyptic believers around the world, the bleaker prophecies of disaster in the aftermath of Y2K computer failure have a thrillingly familiar ring to them: mass panic, government paralysis, food riots, planes crashing into skyscrapers.

For decades, Christian fundamentalists have been prophesying that just this sort of society-wide breakdown lies just around the corner. Now, to their astonishment, not only are these scenarios being taken seriously, but they are being circulated by the very people who used to ridicule them: computer programmers, business leaders and politicians. In the last year, the Millennium Bug has done more to raise the apocalyptic temperature than any number of biblical prophecies. It has carried millennial fever across national and religious borders. And it has turned thoroughly secular individuals into unlikely millenarians.

Steve Watson, for example has moved to a camouflaged bunker in Oklahoma big enough for 40 people, surrounded by stocks of dried food and M-16 assault rifles. A photograph of him in Wired magazine shows a fat, pugnacious man gazing out at the world with the authentic expression of the survivalist: half paranoid, half smug. He could be a far- right activist listening for the hoofbeats of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But he's not. He's there only because of Y2K. Watson is a computer systems analyst who, two years ago, was responsible for ensuring that a major U.S. phone company was Y2K compliant. No sooner was this mammoth task completed than he decided that his efforts were in vain. If the whole electricity grid went down, society would still fall apart. So, like apocalyptic believers stretching back at least two millennia, he headed for the hills.

If Y2K is turning computer professionals into End-Time believers, it is having the reverse effect on many evangelicals and fundamentalists. The Christian right, which was already far more computer literate than the mainstream churches, is fast acquiring specialist knowledge of Y2K. A leading attraction at the Christian Coalition's annual Road to Victory conference was a Y2K workshop which announced plans for churches to supply food, shelter and medical supplies in the event of disaster. Christian websites such as The Joseph Project 2000 set out detailed responses to chaos. "Prepare yourself," says the site. "Begin brainstorming ways in which you can tie up with churches in your geographical area ... set up a Y2K-Hurricane storehouse for your community."

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