...war was beginning.
Posted on 04/25/2005 7:18:19 AM PDT by Irontank
In a world encouraged to embrace differences, B.C. and A.D. are increasingly finding themselves on the wrong end of the religious sensitivity meter.
Educators and historians say schools from North America to Australia have been changing the terms Before Christ to Before Common Era and anno Domini (Latin for "year of the Lord") to Common Era. In short, they're referred to as B.C.E. and C.E.
The change has stoked the ire of Christian conservatives and some religious leaders who view it as an attack on a social and political order that has been in place for centuries. Ironically, for more than a century Hebrew lessons have used B.C.E. and C.E., with C.E. sometimes referring to Christian Era.
That begs the question: Can old and new coexist in harmony, or must one give way to the other to reflect changing times and attitudes?
The terms B.C. and A.D. have clear Catholic roots. Dionysius Exiguus, an abbot in Rome, devised them as a way to determine the date for Easter for Pope St. John I. The terms were continued under the Gregorian Calendar.
Although most calendars are based on an epoch or person, B.C. and A.D. have always presented a particular problem for historians: There is no year zero.
"When Jews or Muslims have to put Christ in the middle of our calendar ... that's difficult for us," said Steven Brown, dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. "They are hard for non-Jews, because they assume a centrality of Jesus ... it's not offensive, but it's not sensitive to my religious sensibilities."
The new terms were introduced by academics in the 1990s in public elementary and high school classrooms.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
It really had nothing at all to do with bias in my 'olden days'.
You must have attended a really strange school.
Oh Bite me.
...war was beginning.
It does date from creation? Now that I hadn't realized ... though I had some Jewish boys I used to babysit school me on the calendar once and did have some general idea what year it was.
Wehn given an option, I always fill out - Year of our Lord Two housand and Five.
Opps! should read crucified in 28 AD. sorry
It would have been easier if an earlier event such as the creation or the birth of Abraham had been chosen as the starting point, at least for dealing with Greek and Roman history.
One thing we can count on--the comic strip B.C. won't be renamed B.C.E.
"Common Era", indeed. Daddy, why is it "common"?
This is bad news ... I'm apparently either 3,760 years ahead or behind in my rent. I hope my landlord isn't a Freeper.
I use another standard. This year is 63 AD. Before Dean. That's me folk!
AAPC
The logical thing would be to shift to radiocarbon dates - either Before Present or Present Year.
proposed inst. 55AP (Anno Present)
So B.C.E is short for B.C.?
That makes sense. NOT!
The calendar is not a place to make a political stand, it's how we can all agree on what date it is. Screwing with a system that has worked just fine for a few hundred years is merely begging for trouble.
I've noticed this for about a decade now and I hate it. It's just more PC bulls--t being forced down our throats. Even though I'm not much of a Christian, I very much resent our history and cultural heritage being redefined in this manner.
Its Cat!
When I heard that (BCE/CE) I always imagined this exchange with some mr. elite uber-leftist "intellectual"...
"What does CE mean?
"Common Era, as in the years of the modern calender"
"You mean like BC and AD?"
"right"
"So when does CE start"
"The time of Christ"
"I thought that was AD, as in The year of our lord, anno domini"
"No"
"But it begins at the time of Christ, then, right?"
"Yes"
"So then it's AD, not CE, right?"
"No, it's CE.."
"What's it's based on then?"
"The Common Era"
"When did the 'common era' start?"
"The time of Christ"
"But it's not AD then?"
"No"
etc...
Metric years? What's A.D. 2005 in metric?
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