question on dates b.c to ad

[antisocialmunky]

Its common era. You can call it 'Christian' era but until 33 CE, Christianity didn't exist. It was just a bunch of Jews that thought Jesus was the Messiah. It wasn't until 33 CE when (If you belive in Christianity) that the Jewish law was nulled by the covenant between Jesus and his disciples for the Kingdom that the old testament always talks about.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

BCE / CE doesn't have to do with inaccuracies with the Christian calendar, but rather an attempt to remove the Christian aspect of dating. One of those "removing Christ from modern culture" things. The whole thing is quite silly, seeing as the guessed date of Jesus is still the pivot date. Quite an esoteric arguement. I could argue both sides and change sides depending on my mood.

[Ignoramus]

Exactly, that's the reason why they are trying to change it. They hate anything Christian, because: (a) They hate Christianity. (b) They claim it offends other religions.

Now those are pretty lame excuses for changing it. However, there is an irony that they can't remove the division of BC and AD, because otherwise famous dates like 1066 and 1415 would be different.

[Roman_Man#3]

I always thought that AD meant after death ....

[Rilder]

Exactly, that's the reason why they are trying to change it. They hate anything Christian, because: (a) They hate Christianity. (b) They claim it offends other religions.

Now those are pretty lame excuses for changing it. However, there is an irony that they can't remove the division of BC and AD, because otherwise famous dates like 1066 and 1415 would be different.

Well I'm all for removing something from a dominant monotheistic religion, it would make dates weird...

[Zaknafien]

well basing dates of history on something as ridiculous as religion is kinda silly anyway.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Better to base them on the date Hercules founded the Olympic Games! Rawr!

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

well basing dates of history on something as ridiculous as religion is kinda silly anyway.

Well Christianity dictated nearly all events in western history from Constantine (though even events as early as Nero's rule involved Christianity) to at least the French Revolution. History (AD) without Christianity would be like history without war -- definately missing a huge chunk.

[Sheep]

Now those are pretty lame excuses for changing it. However, there is an irony that they can't remove the division of BC and AD, because otherwise famous dates like 1066 and 1415 would be different.

We should just add 4.5 billion to all of our years.

Happy New Year 4,500,002,007 everyone!!!

[Teleklos Archelaou]

You'll see some new ways of dating things in the next build, for those of you interested in using dates in AAR's and such especially - but the date at the bottom right of the screen will remain as it is currently.

[Intranetusa]

We should just add 4.5 billion to all of our years.

Happy New Year 4,500,002,007 everyone!!!

Considering most religious fundies believe in the literal intrepretation of the old testament...meaning the world was created by the Abrahamic God(s)
~7000 years ago.

Exactly, that's the reason why they are trying to change it. They hate anything Christian, because: (a) They hate Christianity. (b) They claim it offends other religions.

Now those are pretty lame excuses for changing it. However, there is an irony that they can't remove the division of BC and AD, because otherwise famous dates like 1066 and 1415 would be different.

How about because people think AD means "after death" and BC & AD aren't accurate anyways because Jesus wasn't born on the year 1. Also, BC & AD don't have the year 0, so we actually have to add a year...this is the year 2008 AD/CE technically

[Boyar Son]

Considering most religious fundies believe in the literal intrepretation of the old testament...meaning the world was created by the Abrahamic God(s)
~7000 years ago.

God(s)??

What do you mean I thought only one?

Click to see funny Arab people!!

[Intranetusa]

God(s)??

What do you mean I thought only one?

Click to see funny Arab people!!

Technically, the Trinity of the father, the son, and the holy spirit is one God. However, I hear many people consider Hinduism a polytheistic religion, even though Hinduism has the same concept - many dieties that make up the face of one God, Brahaman.

So if you consider Hinduism polytheistic, that applies to Christianity as well.
Needless to say, this is up for debate...

[Zim]

Its common era. You can call it 'Christian' era but until 33 CE, Christianity didn't exist. It was just a bunch of Jews that thought Jesus was the Messiah. It wasn't until 33 CE when (If you belive in Christianity) that the Jewish law was nulled by the covenant between Jesus and his disciples for the Kingdom that the old testament always talks about.

I don't call it anything. I've never used CE or BCE in any paper I've written, nor in any conversation. I think if anything it's arrogant to call the time since the birth of a religious figure the "common" era (making the time before that the....uncommon era? ). At least the AD/BC dating system has an overtly religious basis, rather than a sneakily implied one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era Wikipedia used to claim that CE and BCE have stood for Christian/Before Christian Era. They seem to have since changed to stating that's just a result of a popular misconception about the meanings of the acronym.

I always thought that AD meant after death ....

I used to think that when I was younger. Never even thought about what that would mean for the 30 odd years between his death and birth.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

(making the time before that the....uncommon era? )

LOL

I always thought that AD meant after death ....

When I was kid I thought that too. But as a kid, I also thought "PM" meant "post-midday".

[antisocialmunky]

I don't call it anything. I've never used CE or BCE in any paper I've written, nor in any conversation. I think if anything it's arrogant to call the time since the birth of a religious figure the "common" era (making the time before that the....uncommon era? ). At least the AD/BC dating system has an overtly religious basis, rather than a sneakily implied one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era Wikipedia used to claim that CE and BCE have stood for Christian/Before Christian Era. They seem to have since changed to stating that's just a result of a popular misconception about the meanings of the acronym.


I used to think that when I was younger. Never even thought about what that would mean for the 30 odd years between his death and birth.

Sorry if yoiu took my comment as somewhat agressive. However, they can't exactly change the dating system now as others have mentioned. You're stuck with it being based off something religious whether you like it or not... kinda like wedding rings or clocks.

[Foot]

Zim, your so right! I for one am also sick of the 12 month years we have, its just so roman and european! The Peruvian Calender for the win (and a million pounds, Neddy)! And if you know that reference, you are a good man!

Foot

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

AD is from the first "Year of our Lord" if I was a Muslim then I'd be more offended by the idea that this was a "common" marker that I'm supposed to follow.

Other religions have their own callenders and the only reason we use the Christian one is because Christian powers have been on top for the last few hundred years.

We had enough trouble trying to get everyone to adopt the Gregorian calender for crying out loud, just because it was Catholic.

[Watchman]

I for one am also sick of the 12 month years we have, its just so roman and european!

Go sue God for making the solar system as it is for that.

[Enguerrand de Sarnéac]

You're stuck with it being based off something religious whether you like it or not... kinda like wedding rings or clocks.

Clocks?

Better to base them on the date Hercules founded the Olympic Games! Rawr!

Wasn't that the ancient Greek way? Counting from Olympic Games dates? Like 5th century BOG (Before Olympic Games)

[Boyar Son]

YES!!!!!

Holy WARRR

[Rilder]

Wait what date is it today based off that Olympic game date thing... I wanna run by that format.

I wonder how many people I can annoy by using this olympic time format.

[L.C.Cinna]

Wait what date is it today based off that Olympic game date thing... I wanna run by that format.

I wonder how many people I can annoy by using this olympic time format.

Problem with counting in Olympiads is that there were no games between 393 and 1896. The ones in 1916, 1940 and 1944 were left out.

Now we have the 3rd year after the last Olympic games. If all games since 1896 would have been held 2007 would be

3rd year of the 108th Olympiade since reinstallment lol

[Brightblade]

Zaknifien, my respect for you just went into the toilet. As ridiculous as religion? If you were in any way smart you'd recognize that faith is important to the vast majority of people in the world, in one form or another, and always has been and always will be.

go cry about your anger with religion on the more appropriate forum that also wants the law to allow people to marry dogs and government to disappear. sigh...

[antisocialmunky]

Couldn't you record the 'faction' year like you do the 'this year in history?'

That would be fun and tedious.

[abou]

Zaknifien, my respect for you just went into the toilet. As ridiculous as religion? If you were in any way smart you'd recognize that faith is important to the vast majority of people in the world, in one form or another, and always has been and always will be.

go cry about your anger with religion on the more appropriate forum that also wants the law to allow people to marry dogs and government to disappear. sigh...

Granted, you're upset, but it doesn't help your argument to cite some extreme example that most likely doesn't exist in real life. Honestly - marrying dogs and disappearance of government?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Clocks?



Wasn't that the ancient Greek way? Counting from Olympic Games dates? Like 5th century BOG (Before Olympic Games)

Clocks run on base 12 because 12 was easier to divide than 10, these days a lot of people see that as inconvenient.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I for one am also sick of the 12 month years we have, its just so roman and european!

We should go to that metric time that France tired right after the French Revolution. Ten days a week. Thirty-six weeks a year (every other year-37).

And metric time: ten hours a day, 100 minutes in each hour, 100 seconds a minute. And seconds are 86.4% the length of modern seconds.

Clocks run on base 12 because 12 was easier to divide than 10, these days a lot of people see that as inconvenient.

I love base 12, it makes so much more sense. You can do half, third, quarter.
Half of 12 is 6, half of 6 is 3, stop.
Third of 12 is 4. Still not a prime number.
Quarter of 12 is 3. 3 is still a useful number yet is small - also one of the only odd numbers that seems complete.
vs.
Half of 10 is 5, stop. Can't divide five, prime number.
Third, can't do...
Quarter, can't do...
A fifth of 10 is 2, and that's really just half backwards.

But we should use some sort of absolute. Like base pi. Or base c (speed of light). Or just a system of prime numbers.

[Tellos Athenaios]

12, 24, and 60 are the typical numbers dating as far back as the Babylonians at least. (Because of their numerical system.) And why should our days be devided in parts of 60? Exactly...

[Tellos Athenaios]

@MAA:

60 is the most efficient base number - mathematically speaking. However, we've got only 2 fingers. Another highly efficient number would be 2. (Multiplying, adding and substacting is way easier with 2 as base number - however dividing get's messy.)