Okay armchair historians.....C.E. or A.D.?

[Liberal Veteran]

Poll question: Okay armchair historians.....C.E. or A.D.?

Which do you prefer?

[BiggJawn]

1. "Common Era", not "Anno Domini"

"Anno Domini" is a character in the BC comix.
Also, since I don't recognize any "Lord", there's no "Lord" for this to be "In the Year of".

[mitchtv]

2. please no more PC changes

I'm a creature of my era.

[Liberal Veteran]

4. A bit of history for you...

The term "Common Era" has been in use since the late 19th century. Indeed, in its article on "Chronology", the 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia uses the sentence: "Foremost among these is that which is now adopted by all civilized peoples and known as the Christian, Vulgar, or Common Era, in the twentieth century of which we are now living."

[BiggJawn]

5. "Vulgar Era"..I LIKE that!

OK, so I had "Jerry" on in the shop today...
"Girl! You aint NUTTIN"! You work in a LAUNDROMAT! *I* work in a GAS STATION!!!"

"But I GAVE you my paycheck when I was workin' at McDonald's..."

Yep, sounds pretty Vulgar to me....:7

[Liberal Veteran]

8. I think they mean vulgar as common or ordinary.

Although I am sure it has taken on new meanings in today's usage.

[AlienGirl]

3. C.E. all the way...

[Devlzown]

6. What did they call B.C. in the old days?

I mean, they used a Latin phrase to name the era we're in now, but the old era means "before Christ," and English wasn't even a language in the ancient Roman days. Did B.C. stand for something else back then, or did they use a different abbreviation?

[Interrobang]

9. Oh, come on...

The Gregorian calendar (the one we're using now) wasn't even invented until the early 1400s -- before that, we had the Julian calendar. The idea to begin numbering years in "our" calendar by the alleged date of "the Christ's" birth didn't even occur to someone until at least one or two centuries after the Nazarene rabbi died -- by then, Rome was starting to decline and the cult itself hadn't really picked up a lot of speed.

In other words, they didn't use "B.C." back then. That's a relatively modern invention. If I knew where my OED CD was, I'd look it up, but I'd wager it's a Victorian Era invention -- they were the ones first passionately interested in historicity.

In any case, to go even further back, most of our ancestors used Romanized and/or lunar calendars.

That's why it's better to use the term C.E.

(Interestingly enough, in the Jewish ecumenical calendar, this is Year 5764, but who knows when and how they decided to set Year Zero at that date.)

[Devlzown]

16. Thanks.

I knew about all the other calendar changes, but I'd just never thought about why there was a Latin term for the later period and an English term for the earlier one. Since all they knew of history was what was recorded, they certainly didn't need to use a phrarse like "3 million B.C." Makes sense.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

20. B.C.E.

Before common era

[bif]

35. They used a reference to the year of the emperor

Like "the third year of the reign of Emperor Nero."

[supernova]

7. C.E.

It's the only civilized thing to do. :7

Pre C.E? It was customary to mark time by the reign of certain leaders. "In the 5th year of the reign of our glorious Ceasar Agustus..." and so on.

[Matilda]

10. Yes, B.C. is English terminology.

I thought it might have stood for a Latin meaning, like Anno
Domini, but it doesn't.

[supernova]

14. Before Christ

is what I thought it meant? Is there another definition?

[Matilda]

17. It does mean "before Christ".

I don't know when it was first used, obviously when English was
becoming a dominant language, because in early days all educated
people spoke Latin.

If anyone out there has more info, I'd like to know. I'd never
thought about it before you asked.

[Liberal Veteran]

11. In the 10th year of the reign of glorius Johnny Depp?

Will that work?

[supernova]

15. Yeah Bay-bee!!

I'll take it where I can get it! :9



Johnny and his girl, Vanessa Paradis

http://www.johnnydeppfan.com

[ikojo]

12. Jews tend to use CE since

AD measures time since either the death of Jesus or the birth of Jesus. Since Jews don't recognize the divinity of Jesus to say AD would not make sense.

[CanuckAmok]

13. Years Kelvin n/t

[regnaD kciN]

18. Depends on the context...

...if I'm writing something theological, or with a Christian audience in mind, I'll use A.D. If something aimed at a secular audience, C.E.

[moof]

19. A new B.C.

Alas not anytime soon but in the future when the time comes that the planet decides that no one will ever again kill other human beings,
then the new B.C. B.efore C.ivilization can be instituted.
When & if this should ever be attained it will be simple enough to have all the earths records be rebooted to reflect the new enlightened era. All events after this benchmark could be designated in what ever
way those great humanbeings think is best.

[Maddy McCall]

21. Professional historian here

BCE and CE

[OldEurope]

22. Neither.

Here in Germany, we´r e used to say and write: before Christ if we refere to the years before. This is because the common era is related to that virtual year of his birth. But please: calling a certain year the year zero or one or 3056 is just relative, isn´t it?
Many many years ago, a pope decided a certain year to be the year one, and as most of our ancestors are decendants of people who followed the pope at that times... our way to count years, still relates to this decision, and using the words "before/ after Christ" just makes clear that I´m today in the year 2004 of my countig.
I dont find this in any way offending to others, but I could find the "common era " offending, because it implicates that all other contemporaries on this planet have the same way of counting the years, even if they count in a completely different way.
"Common era" is so...all-embracing, like you don´t allow anybody else to count in a different way.
It´s only common in countries with a christian majority, so common era cannot be a politically correct term, imhop.
On edit: I´m agnostic. ;-)

[Loonman]

23. PC is way out of hand, A.D.

Thought police.

[arwalden]

24. A Comment On That...

You seem to be taking it personally. How does this equate to being politically correct "thought police"?

I see nothing politically correct about CE and nothing politically incorrect about AD. The same goes for BCE and BC. --- Isn't this more of a case of historians preferring to use more precise and more descriptive secular terminology?

Just asking... from your brief reply it's difficult to tell exactly why you feel this way.

-- Allen

[Liberal Veteran]

29. See post #4....

The term Common Era has been in use since the late 19th century, so this has nothing to do with thought police.

[OldEurope]

38. delete this, have a problem

[Loonman]

31. Never mind

I'm cranky today, my stomach is upset.

[arwalden]

36. Take A Bicarb... A Big Burp Sometimes Helps

I know what you mean. I get extremely irritable when I have a headache...

-- Allen

[arwalden]

25. What Number Is The Current Year On...

The Chinese calendar?
The Mayan calendar?
The Ancient Egyptian calendar?

We probably should have been using one of these all along.

-- Allen

[arwalden]

33. Hey.. I'm Askin A Question Here!! You Ignorin' ME?

[northzax]

42. Jesus, Allen, do I have to do everything for you?

Today's Mayan Date: 11 Kan 12 Muan 12.19.10.17.4
Today's Julian date: 2453028 (a count of days, in the Julian system from 4713 BCE, which as every good freeper will tell you, is when the Bigt Guy made the world.)
Modified Julain date: January 10, 2004.
Chinese date: it's the 2nd day, i nthe first month of the 93rd year of the Republic.
Want more? fine:

French Republican: Annee 212 de la republique. Mois: Pluvoise, Decade I jour: du Tridi.

Indian Civil: 3 Magha, 1925.

and finally, it's Gregorian Serial day 731603.

to be precise, your UNIX time stamp is: 1074816000

happy now?

[Fenris]

43. On edit: Never mind

:)

[Muesli]

26. I like B.P.

Before Present.

'Present' being 1950 :s

[OldEurope]

28. LOL

[name not needed]

27. Leave it A.D.

I'm sick of changing everything.

[arwalden]

32. Yeah... I Know What You Mean. No Sense In Letting Progress and Accuracy

get in the way of tradition and the "but-this-is-how-we've-ALWAYS-done-it" folks. :hi:

Even though it sometimes takes a little getting accustomed to and some "mental adjustments", not all change is bad.

-- Allen

[Endangered Specie]

30. Its actually a historically accurate change...

Jesus is believed to have been 'born' around 4-6BC as opposed to 0. So it is a little off.

[WoodrowFan]

40. there is no year 0

One nit to pick, there is no Year 0, I think they counted from Jesus being born in 1 BC (at the end).

[Beaker]

34. I was born in A.D., I'll die in A.D.

I'm a born-again atheist, but I'm sticking with A.D.

[EV1Ltimm]

37. AD...

i'm an atheist, so you'd think that i'd try to steer away from the "year of our lord stuff", but just by me saying "AD" gives the impression that i might know some latin.

Ceasar: Et tu, Brute?
Brutus: Mea Culpa
Bush: Ivegay Emay An Eerbay

[NoPasaran]

44. Another athiest for AD

"Common Era" just doesn't do it for me.

[WoodrowFan]

39. CE

I'm a pretty orthodox Presbyterian but I like CE. Still like BC better than BCE though....

[CrownPrinceBandar]

41. I have always been partial to "B.P."

"before present." Alot of my anthropology and archaeology textbooks I pretended to read back in college used that nomenclature. I like it like I like "C.E." its not religo-centric and portrays a chronology not a persistent obituary.