BC/AD versus BCE/CE

[Basking Turtles]

It has become commonplace to use the terms BCE/CE (before common era/common era) instead of BC/AD (before christ/anno domini). The motivation for this is, supposedly, to make things less Christian-centric.

I would argue that, if anything, it makes things more Christian-centric. We still use the same timescale, we still start counting from Jesus' birthday. Only now, instead of calling it what it is, we call it the "common era", although there is nothing common about it.

What an arrogant idea, that "we christians" need to make "our" calendar easier to swallow for non-christians by obscuring its origins.

I think we should call things by their names. Changing the name doesn't change the thing. If the origin of the calendar is a problem, we should change the calendar, not its name. Even better would be to ignore any religious sensitivities, and recognise that a calendar is a practical tool and any starting point would be arbitrary.

What do you think?

[Akhra]

To each their own, I say.

[Valentine Z]

I personally love the Holocene calendar. "In the year 12018...", like it just sounds very futuristic to me!

Back to the discussion! Hmm, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, I guess it's fine. I mean, the years are more or less the same numbers regardless of what system we use.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Ah i end up using both, so just let people use whatever one they are used to out of the two

[The Great-German Empire]

I don't understand the fuss about it at all. De-christianisation? On your bike! Going around changing conventions because somebody is offended just adds confusion when dealing, for instance, with both new and dated documents, and had no real benefit. I'm not even religous and I think all this fuss about removing religious language from public usage is rubbish.

[Anywhere Else But Here]

Is this really something that matters? It's one extra letter, it's more accurate (Jesus likely wasn't born in AD 1, after all, whereas we certainly do measure a "Common Era" from that date), it makes a little more sense when you're discussing places whose history has very little if anything to do with Christianity, and its more open to being adopted as a standard.

[Mutz]

I use BCE/CE when writing in English, but it's not really in an attempt to make the dates less christian-centric. Though I wouldn't have anything against that, but as long as we retain the same basic, underlying system, that's more of a fig leaf. Which is a least something, mind you, but not exactly gamechanging. No, the real i.e. main reason why I prefer to use BCE/CE is because I really don't like anchoring all dates to an a.)uncorrobborated event that b.) even according to christian scholars didn't actually take place at that time, i.e. the birth of Christ. As a historian, I don't really like the thought of having such a problematic starting point as the base of the system. So I prefer the idea that it now is what it is and the common consensus is that there's a more or less arbitrary turning point there, because that's what we're used to.

B.P. is where it's really at though!

[Risottia]

Switch back to AVC. Welcome in year MMDCCLXXI since the City was founded.

[Trumptonium1]

It has become commonplace to use the terms BCE/CE (before common era/common era)

Has it?

Never noticed.

[Conserative Morality]

BCE/AD pls

[Trumptonium1]

and its more open to being adopted as a standard.

The Gregorian Calendar is the standard.

The only countries which do not use BC/AD are Nepal, Ethiopia, Iran and Afghanistan.

It's like catering to Burma and the US because they don't use metric. Who cares. Let them be weird.

[Albrenia]

I like BC/AD. It's what most of us are used to, and the fact it has Christian origins doesn't make it less useful. Much like how we have some Roman month names despite not being in the Roman Empire, old god weekday names besides few of us worshipping Thor on Thursday, and so on.

We could change to some sort of more generic calendar, but I don't see the need unless it is more accurate than the current calendar and dating systems.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I think it would be better to use an astronomical event as the reference date. I would suggest the supernova of 1054 BCE - it's apolitical and was widely visible around the world.

But suddenly rendering so many old date references outdated is more trouble than it is worth.

[Alvecia]

Changing it would be a lot of effort for minimal gain. Leave it as it is.

It's not like it's really a Christian thing anymore either. Like Christmas.

[Dumb Ideologies]

It has become commonplace to use the terms BCE/CE (before common era/common era)

Has it?

Never noticed.

Only time I've ever come across it was way back in secondary school so I presumed the campaign to make this a thing had died out.

[Akhra]

Has it?

Never noticed.

Only time I've ever come across it was way back in secondary school so I presumed the campaign to make this a thing had died out.

It's... used pretty often.

[Albrenia]

I've never seen anything but BC/AD in common usage.

[Pilarcraft]

I personally use BC/CE. Because it's easier, and because Christ is not my lord.

[Dumb Ideologies]

Only time I've ever come across it was way back in secondary school so I presumed the campaign to make this a thing had died out.

It's... used pretty often.

Others are also saying it isn't so I suppose it must depend on the country you're in and the circles in which you mix.

[Basking Turtles]

I personally use BC/CE. Because it's easier, and because Christ is not my lord.

He's not my lord either. But he was the lord of the people who created our current calendar system, which is why they called it "anno domini". Isn't it more honest to use the historical term, instead of pretending there were no christians involved? I can call my car a bicycle, but that doesn't make it any more environmentally friendly.

[Akhra]

It's... used pretty often.

Others are also saying it isn't so I suppose it must depend on the country you're in and the circles in which you mix.

I'd say the country is the more likely deciding factor here. Most recent documentaries, books, etc. that I have seen use BCE/CE.

[Valrifell]

It's... used pretty often.

Others are also saying it isn't so I suppose it must depend on the country you're in and the circles in which you mix.

The scholarly types so gravitate towards B/CE, the unwashed masses gravitate towards BC/AD.

[Basking Turtles]

BCE/AD pls

Could you elaborate?

[Albrenia]

Others are also saying it isn't so I suppose it must depend on the country you're in and the circles in which you mix.

The scholarly types so gravitate towards B/CE, the unwashed masses gravitate towards BC/AD.

I would guess so. Being one of the unwashed myself, I've never encountered anyone using anything but BC/AD in everyday life or conversation.

[Bombadil]

We should have ages, we can keep BC/AD for pre-2000 and call it the Age of Religion, then we restart in 2000 in the Age of Science..

So everything after 1999 is the year FS - for science! Everything before we can call BS.

So we're 18FS now.