[Triggerhippie]

It is impossible to take religion out of the calendar. We still honor Roman Emperors (worshipped as gods) in our months and our weekdays are named after Norse gods. The Western (Gregorian) calendar was named after POPE Gregory XIII. Western civilization's singular commonality is (or at least was) Christianity.

"neutral usage of the Western calandar"?

Christ's birth is the FOCAL POINT of the Western Calendar, whether or not you are a Christian. The fact remains that BCE and CE are an attempt, largely by the left, to dishonor the one whose birth is reckoned as Year 0. I suspect most Christians don't care whether anyone else uses the terms A.D. and B.C. in "good faith."

If I wanted to go to China and insist on them renaming their calendar system so it doesn't offend MY sensibilities, I would expect someone to tell me to go to hell (and rightfully so!) Likewise, if I were to go to a synagogue in Jerusalem and expect them to make changes to suit MY tastes, I would also expect to be rebuffed. Further, if I were to try to tamper with the calendar in Mecca, being chastised would most likely take the form of the traditional "religion-of-peace" beheading.

We, in the Christian west, do not require that anyone believes in our Savior; we do expect, however, that OUR religious beliefs and traditions should be equally respected regardless of the outsider's belief system.

[Katya]

" Christ's birth is the FOCAL POINT of the Western Calendar, whether or not you are a Christian. The fact remains that BCE and CE are an attempt, largely by the left, to dishonor the one whose birth is reckoned as Year 0. I suspect most Christians don't care whether anyone else uses the terms A.D. and B.C. in "good faith."

I agree, succinctly put. Common era to me denotes it as just some date we all agreed upon as the year Zero.
Like it or not, there was no agreement, what happened was:

Our culture won.