BC is what is used here in AMERICA, where FR is based (1 hr north of me) and where I’ve lived for the last fifty something years. Then comes along an emboldened wave of stinking commie rats, and now here in the USA you hear rat educated people SUDDENLY pushing BCE, when you didn’t hear it being used before. Go join em if you like. Call homosexuals “gay,” call men who mangle their bodies “women,” call abortion “choice,” call NAMBLA “love,” call good “evil” and evil “good”... and enjoy your party. But if you expect to converse with me then you’ll not pretend that 2011 represents something of your own (man’s) making without being called out.
And the last reference you want to use here on FR is Wiki unless it’s about a simple self evident subject. I couldn’t care less what’s in Wikipedia. I’ve lived here and I know from factual experience that Americans have traditionally used BC to express years Before Christ, and AD to express “Anno Domini,” which is Latin for “year of our Lord,” representing the number of years since... well, you guessed it.... the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And, AD ~ Anno Domini ~ or Ad Domini ~ how do you know the fellows who invented AD didn't invent AD before they invented the latin words to 'splain it?
Neither are Biblical BTW.
More commonly is to say something like 3,500 years before present, or 3,500 years ago.
Abbreviations mean what we want them to mean.
What everybody is doing who is telling you how many years they estimate have passed since a certain event took place, or what radio carbon dating, or other process might be telling you, is that it's all pretty old ~ much more than yesterday, or last week.
You should be much more concerned when the Hindus come up with BK and don't mean "Burger King" ~ and that's definitely going to happen now that they've found Dwarka!