>>>What defines the start of the "Common Era"? Uhhhhhhh......Christ's birth?
The common era defines Jesus' birth. Whether or not he is the Christ/Messiah/Annointed One is not accepted by all, so CE makes more sense than BC. For Jews, we are still BC because Christ has not yet come.
Scholarly pursuit is an international endeavor and not all of those involved in it are Christian. For example, should the Jewish archaeologist working with Israeli andtiquities have to use a dating system that forces him to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ?
How can you mean anything other than "Jesus' birth defines the common era"? You can call it BC - Before Christ, or BCE - Before the Common Era, or CC - Current Calendar, or FFT - Fred Flintstone Time, but if you still call this year "2006", then you are still referencing Jesus' birth. To call it anything else is petty symantics. Your Jewish archaeoligist can use any dating system he wants, but if he calls this year 2006, he is referencing Jesus, whose only contribution to mankind is that he is the Christ of Christianity.....
I can understand that Jews might be uncomfortable using B.C. and A. D., and I kind of give them a pass on that. But the statement "The common era defines Jesus' birth" is completely bass ackwards. The elephant in the room, like it or not, is that dates are reckoned by the estimation of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Using BCE and CE are like the Soviets airbrushing out the images of purged party members in old photos.