+35
"Before Common Era" and "Common Era" are terrible, amirite?
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
we dont? what do they use now?
by Dangerous-Lock47634 weeks ago
Oh yeah that's right. So it seems I was born too late for the iron age But born too early for the energy age
by Smithamnova4 weeks ago
I want to be in the song and dance age.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I'm trying to be in the Unemployment Age
by Actual_Vegetable_1364 weeks ago
Atomic Age>Information Age
by Automatic_Stretch4 weeks ago
Come on we can come up with better I wanna live in the "age of knowledge" or something cooler like that
by zwehner4 weeks ago
We had the age of enlightenment before the industrial revolution. This is more like the age of misinformation
by Far_Payment90334 weeks ago
Sadly, that's exactly what it is. Or perhaps, "I believe whatever I feel is true." Age. Who cares about facts anymore, am I right?
by Necessary_Being92674 weeks ago
Disinformation
by Framivada4 weeks ago
Age of enlightenment
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Sadly that's come and gone
by zwehner4 weeks ago
That's kinda cool but if it was the stainless steel age or something it'd be better
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I am almost 100% positive if we were following that type of naming convention we would be in the plastic age.
by Jermeykassulke4 weeks ago
The iron age lasted 700 years, I think we can keep stainless steel for a while
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Yeah because technology advanced at a slower pace. For the average working class person 1910 - 2020 is a bigger change than bronze age to iron age.
by Dangerous-Lock47634 weeks ago
the silicon age
by Smante4 weeks ago
I disagree. We are currently living in the Silicon Age.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
No, we're saving that one for when the silicon based aliens invade and enslave humankind
by Smithamnova4 weeks ago
The Metal Age
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
"we are changing BC to BCE." Oh, what significant event are you basing BCE on? "The same date as BC but we didn't like the wording."
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I think the main reason to move away from Christ being a signifier is just to de-religion science. It's all semantics but I think that's the reasoning.
by Zlesch4 weeks ago
But wtf so common era mean then? What makes 1 CE special for the start of the common era?
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
TIL the pagans I know don't actually exist.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I mean, to say it is inaccurate is a matter of perspective. Yes what you are saying is true. But it's also correct that this form of dating was calculated at that time and then a few hundred years later started to become popularized, then spread amongst most of western culture. That isn't inaccurate, and I don't think the counter argument is really that it's more correct about the date of Jesus' birth, it's that it makes sense to continue using a methodology that is thousands of years old that does have that origin whether we like it or not. I'm not religious. I don't think we should use it out of the respect for the religious aspect. I think changing it is just a weird way to wash away a part of history that doesn't really seem necessary. We can understand everything you just described while continuing to use the same terminology. Are we supposed to rename the planets because their current names give too much tribute to Greek and Roman pantheons and that is too exclusionary? Everything about that notion seems silly to me.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Because in Latin numerals there is no place holding zero. 10=X not 10.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
40 is just one more than 39. Pour out 39 Skittles and add one. There isn't actually a zero there. The zero is only in the writing, which represents that it equals 4x10 + 0x1, which is convenient for our calculations. In a base 16 system, the same amount is written 28, 2x16 + 8x1.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Which is odd because our days of the week are named after Norse gods, some of our months are named after Roman gods along with the planets. Scientists still use these names all the time.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
That is named after mythologies though, Christianity is a religion.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
no difference really (outside of age and currently having adherents)
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I just think, Before Christ Era, and Christ Era to help me remember. Works every time!
by Distinct-Flamingo4 weeks ago
Me too
by Wlang4 weeks ago
They can do what businesses do and rebrand. GOG used to be "Good Old Games", and MTV was "Music Television" till they rebranded and changed their names.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Nope, it was back in 2012.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
My response to BCE and CE is "Common era defined by what major event?"
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
BCE/CE has been in scholarly use since the 1700s and BC/AD are still common. No one is taking them from you. Use whatever you want.
by Ckoelpin4 weeks ago
This was like a decade ago, but we used to get scolded in my high school history class for using BC/AD instead of BCE/CE
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Indeed. I prefer to stick with BC/AD and I'm Atheist. I'd rather make a fuss about terms like "the dark ages", luckily we don't have such term in my native language.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I still use BC and AD, dont understand why the change, but I think people will know what I am saying if I continue to use BC and AD
by Windlerlillian4 weeks ago
Yeah. I was encountering them a few years before that, on the regular, in formal contexts, as well. And in an academic setting, it is honestly more noticeable when BC and AD are used, because they aren't the norm in that context.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
That's relatively recent, though. Not in the grand scheme of things, but when you're talking about identifying time by the thousands, 20 years isn't much.
by Elias694 weeks ago
Relatively recent as in 1708, which is the first documented use of 'common era'. Definitely longer than 20 years, though not thousands of years for sure
by Rueckermark4 weeks ago
Neil deGrasse Tyson's a bitch
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I would say he's a massive douche, but that works too.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
It wasn't even that accurate. Sure maybe for the time, but now by our best estimations they were at least 4 years off.
by Yasmeenkautzer4 weeks ago
Let alone BC, is there an objective reason of Anno Domini being superior, other than a lot of people are used to the term?
by blockshania4 weeks ago
It sounds much cooler.
by Distinct_Sun4 weeks ago
It sounds cool
by faustino204 weeks ago
Can we at least agree that CE and BCE are daft in the sense that they're too similar in how they're said? They share two of the same letter. Surely they could have found something that at least uses two different letters to avoid potential confusion when people don't speak clearly. Nobody was mistaking AD for BC.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I agree. Besides, I immediately recognize BC and AD to indicate what era they mean. But every time I see BCE and CE I have to take a minute to think which one is which. It's only one letter different; why did morons think that was a superior solution?
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
What started the Common Era?
by Material_Night4 weeks ago
So many things these days are based on latin. Scientific names, body parts, months of the year. If that's the reasoning then everything else also has to change.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Literally every body part in our anatomy would have to change its name
by Elias694 weeks ago
Language changes very slowly, but Latin is being phased out. Latin terms are not as common as they used to be.
by schroedertrysta4 weeks ago
There's a difference between based on Latin and is Latin. Anno domoni is Latin.
by taltenwerth4 weeks ago
There's plenty of Latin words in common English usage. I'll leave you to Google it if you wish.
by Aschimmel4 weeks ago
Ya don't say. Anno domini is not one of them.
by taltenwerth4 weeks ago
There's other Latin words used less frequently or only in specific cases, too. Of all the arguments for switching to CE/BCE, this one is rather weak tea.
by Aschimmel4 weeks ago
It is religious, it was coined by a Rabbi specifically because it would not be appropriate for Jews to use. It is religion all the way down.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
When I say it is not religious I mean it's valid for every religion including irreligious to use. I'm just not really sure what the term for that would be.
by schroedertrysta4 weeks ago
The wild thing is, BC is "before Christ", but AD is "Anno Domini", and it can't mean "After Death" because tradition is that Jesus died in 33 AD. His entire life took place in what we sometimes call the "after death" half. The names are a bit of a mess, but it works fine in the end.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Right, and that's assuming you can find anything other than a Roman record that says, "there was a Jesus of Nazarath" killed for rebellion on a Tuesday. Of course. None of that will prevent religious idiots from contending it's oppression.
by Cjohnston4 weeks ago
I'm actually with you on this. It was Pope Gregory that introduced the gregorian calendar, so he gets naming rights. BCE/CE is just the gregorian calendar with whitewashing the history away. (*Whitewashing, not in the racial sense)
by Aschimmel4 weeks ago
You're conflating the calendar with the year count. The 2 aren't necessarily linked⦠the julian calendar existed for like 6 centuries before the a.d count was even established
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Even though I'm an atheist, I still prefer AD and BC just because its less boring
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
This is the answer I needed to see. Not the oh BCE was used first actually, well it's tacky and I hate it
by Life-Cat64574 weeks ago
They tried. During the French Revolution, they changed the names of the months and the days of the week to get rid of religious significance. I think they tried to have a 10-day week. It went pretty well for them, at least for about 5 minutes.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Personally I think we should just use "years ago" as our time scale and not have a 0 start.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Then the year numbers would change every year.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Why change the calendar and all the date we already learned in history just for that, when you can keep it intact? I still use BC and AD to be honest, but I don't really get what AD means. Our teachers said it meant After Death, but that can't be it.
by Far_Payment90334 weeks ago
You'd be surprised how much stuff you're taught is just what that particular teacher thinks. Especially in elementary school. As you get to higher education it becomes more and more stuff that's in a textbook and less purely what the teacher thinks but it never completely goes away.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I agree. The whole thing is stupid and I refuse to use it. I've never met anyone outside a history class who uses BCE/CE either.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Another thing that makes BCE and CE stupid is the fact that it uses the birth of Jesus Christ (Christian reference point) to assess timelines. So the sensitivity to non-Christians is practically not fulfilled by just change in nomenclature.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Christians made the calendar pretty much, and it is brilliant system. Let them have it. I agree, I dont care if it offends a small percentage of ppl
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
"Keep the old way".... Oh, so it's 2777 Ab Urbe Condita, from the founding of the city of Rome. Oh, you actually meant, "keep the way that lets me pretend my culture reigns supreme." Yeah no, that hierarchy doesn't exist outside your mind, so we'll pass and keep using the more accurate name, that's been used for hundreds of years.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
It's the same thing haha
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
"Even if you're not Christian you have to admit that they are superior" Christians not making assumptions that eveyrone has to believe the same as them challenge: impossible
by sammie924 weeks ago
I mean they do sound much better. BCE is just too long.
by faustino204 weeks ago
One extra letter, the horror
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
50% increase in letters and "CE" is hard to pronounce in conversation.
by Similar_Gas4 weeks ago
Not unpopular. BCE/CE is antihistorical trash from absolute %>*wits.
by alanarolfson4 weeks ago
Most biblical scholars consider Jesus' birth to take place at around 6 BCE or 4 BCE. Doesn't really make sense if it was BC.
by Pearliebayer4 weeks ago
It's the type of era that was just laying around everywhere. What I want to find out more about are the rare, mythic, and legendary eras.
by Similar_Gas4 weeks ago
Nah. BCE/CE is so much more pleasant
by yostmadelynn4 weeks ago
Anno Domini sounds cooler
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
This non-Christian agrees with OP.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Nah
by magali414 weeks ago
The issue with BC is because christ comes from the Greek "christos" which means messiah. (Which comes from a Hebrew word which means anointed.) By using BC you are referring to Jesus as a messiah. Which is fine for Christians or Muslims who consider Jesus to be the messiah. But for example Jews who don't believe that take issue with it. AD could be interpreted to be even worse. Its Latin for "year of our lord" so it's implying that Jesus is God. Which is a no go for anyone other than s Trinitarian Christian. . Irreligious people don't typically care so by all means use whichever you want. I don't care what other people say. I'm not trying to be the PC police about it at all I just don't want to refer to Jesus as christ or lord.
by Jaskolskiemmy4 weeks ago
I don't mind but there are some Christians who actually think this is proof that their apocalyptic cult is true, and that part makes me cringe. Moving the world towards secularity is a net positive for 99.99% of the human population.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
The intent is good, but it's still the exact same years centering the supposed birth of Jesus as the defining marker so it's not actually a change at all. Just a pointless rename that keeps the bias elevating Christianity to world primacy
by Stokesfermin4 weeks ago
I read this as "command erq" and was confused what the windows command prompts had to do with anything
by Rylanerdman4 weeks ago
BCE looks like they tried to still include BC so yeah, we need something better.
by flavio344 weeks ago
no. FYI, it's not "common era"
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
This isn't so much an unpopular take as it is inconsequential. Literally one extra letter.
by Framivada4 weeks ago
If Jesus was a real person, he was definitely not born in year 1/0 of our calendar. The sources don't add up, if you read about it. So while it's supposed to count years after his birth, it doesn't, so just saying outright "This is what everyone uses as the year we're living in because it's convenient" is much simpler and factual. The BCE/CE convention actually arose when the British Empire was spreading and conquered countries with other religions (most notably Muslim) that couldn't use "Anno Domini" because it would be blasphemous. So in the interest of business and smooth bookkeeping, the "Vulgar Era" was introduced, which is essentially CE, but in slightly outdated language.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Use ab urbe condita
by Pinksmitham4 weeks ago
I've always agreed, and I'm an atheist. My main complaint is that they're exactly the same, just with a different name. It does nothing to address the problem, which is the Eurocentric bias of our dating system. What we should do is move to the Holocene calendar. Add 10,000 years to the current date. Done.
by Emergency_War2034 weeks ago
"But basically it changes nothing. Keep the old way." So nothing changed but you're still upset?
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
We should count from the earliest known writing
by Ok_Shopping_88394 weeks ago
Your history is off a couple of hundred years. BCE/CE have been used for centuries, it replaced 'vulgar era' in the 1700s. You get to have an opinion, but it is better to have an informed one.
by Conscious_Routine_434 weeks ago
How many people have been using it though? It's made a resurgence recently. It's not like everyone started using it, it's been around but not commonly used.
by faustino204 weeks ago
Thank you!!
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
For better or worse, whether they believe in him or not, Jesus Christ changed our calendar system and we're probably not going to change it again, so BC and AD are perfectly fine and never needed to change. But people hate Jesus enough to go through that effort, even though, like I said, not believing in him doesn't change the impact he had on calendars.
by Elias694 weeks ago
People find the dumbest reasons to resist change
by jaskolskiorland4 weeks ago
Yeah, OP's argument is basically "it's different so I hate it". People can be so stubborn about changing the littlest things
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Human Era calendars all day, homie. It's 12,024
by Terry114 weeks ago
You are right: it's an unpopular opinion
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Go back to ab urbe condita and ante urbem conditam
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Also common era is stupid. Most none European civilizations have their own calendar with their own year 0, calling it the "common era" is just stupid
by zwehner4 weeks ago
He's not my lord.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
They've used BCE and CE since the 1700s.
by Pacochaclaudie4 weeks ago
CE and BCE are better
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Get used to it buddy religion is dying
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Let's get rid of everything religious at that point. No more saying things like goodbye (origin: God be with you) or godspeed
by Equivalent_Front31014 weeks ago
Deal.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Lol who's calendar do you use?
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Check this guy's hard drive
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
There's no proof Jesus existed. That's why BC and AD are meaningless.
by Xmoore4 weeks ago
Absolutely true, but imagine a young kid asks you why we use the year zero as reference point. You can turn an old church into a pizzeria, like they did in my city, but that doesn't change the fact it still looks like a church. And everytime you look at it you can't avoid seeing it as a church.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I don't agree. It's not better as I want nothing to do with religion.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
Your use of Christian and superior in your opening argument cannot be ignored. The rest of your argument is the nonsense you mentioned.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
This is unpopular. Why would we base our years on some random dude named Christ. Weird
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I like this plan. Yes, more days off is good. As long as the holiday is on Columbus's birthday I'll call it Columbus Day because that's what it is.
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
I agree with NDT on this. He says religious scholars fixed the map problem, they get the naming rights.
by BarAble26014 weeks ago
I have no problem with this.
by Limp-Mud25254 weeks ago
Jesus wasn't born at 0 AD, so let's just throw that argument out the window to start. BCE and CE is an attempt to use existing calendars within a more academically accurate framework. You are partially correct that it does not change anything because the inaccuracies caused by relying on religions "history" are baked in would require a batter calender. But people like the pagan-based calendar Gregory XIII made, so we continue to use it despite the problems of forcing religious compatability into it causes.
by No_Steak4 weeks ago
Tell me more about the batter calendar π€€
by Anonymous4 weeks ago
It's what happens after deep frying a pagan based calendar overlaid with a Christian veneer.
I believe BCE/CE were invented by Jewish scientists who didn't really want to say "Before the Messiah" when they didn't consider the Jewish Messiah to have arrived yet, so I have no problem with it
by luciohowe4 weeks ago
Yet the number of Christians/Muslims (people who do believe that Christ is the Messiah) far outnumber the number of Jews who don't.
by Distinct_Sun4 weeks ago
Muslims do not believe Christ is the Messiah. They believe that He is a prophet and that the Christian Bible was corrupted to say otherwise
by luciohowe4 weeks ago
Look we all know Christianity is pretty much the thing that defined the difference between those. We all know that
by thelmarutherfor4 weeks ago
B.C. is fundamentally flawed for several reasons. There is no evidence that Jesus even existed, let alone when he was born. The stars mentioned in the Bible put his purported birth at a different time of year. The Catholic Church says that he was born between 3 and 2 B.C.. CE and BCE are just a compromise to keep using the currently most accepted date because there's no specific day that any calendar should be based on.
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