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[TamerVirus]

The American right was offended by Bill Clinton

And Alzheimer's disease is no laughing matter

[Rolan7]

BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini, "In the days of our lord"), taken as a pair, explicitly state that "Christ is Lord".  Can you not see why people of other faiths (particularly Jews and Muslims) might be offended by a dating system that forces them to state a religious tenet they don't believe in?  If I proposed moving to a system that explicitly states that Jesus isn't the messiah would you be OK with using it, or would you regard it as an attack on your beliefs?

Huh yeah, that's even worse than I thought.  That helps explain why religious terminology in government items and procedures bother me.

Beyond that there's also the fact that year 0 was miscalculated, so there's no actual religious meaning to the system.  The only significance that 0AD carries is that the majority of the world agrees it's year zero - in other words, you could say that it's a Common Era.

So it isn't even just a rebranding, it really is a different point in time.  Neat!  A rebranding would have been fine too IMHO.

I'm a atheist and I don't really give a fuck. But if you think about it, it is placed at a very historically relevant time for a transition from old to new world. And no matter what you say, you cannot deny the impact that Christianity has had on history, being one of the leading causes of the collapse of the roman empire, and dominating the western world for the next 1800 years, which lead to the rest of the world being inf not converted, exposed or brought into conflict with Christian forces.

I think we have plenty of reminders of Christianity's time of dominance already, particularly in the US government. 

[Muz]

I tolerate it, but it is annoying. Kind of like how a foot isn't the length of my foot. We use CE a lot for Islamic theological/historical discussions, but it's usually just to avoid that one guy in the room from derailing discussions on which is proper.

[scriver]

I wasn't even aware there had been any kind of push to change it (and no, it never bothered me). Then again, we only use "före Kristus" and "Efter Kristus" (before Christ/after Christ) and haven't used "Herrens år" (our version of Ammo Domino/Year of the Lord) as common usage for I don't know how long. A century? More?

[werty892]

I'm a atheist and I don't really give a fuck. But if you think about it, it is placed at a very historically relevant time for a transition from old to new world. And no matter what you say, you cannot deny the impact that Christianity has had on history, being one of the leading causes of the collapse of the roman empire, and dominating the western world for the next 1800 years, which lead to the rest of the world being inf not converted, exposed or brought into conflict with Christian forces.

I think we have plenty of reminders of Christianity's time of dominance already, particularly in the US government.

So edgy.

[Helgoland]

I wasn't even aware there had been any kind of push to change it (and no, it never bothered me). Then again, we only use "före Kristus" and "Efter Kristus" (before Christ/after Christ) and haven't used "Herrens år" (our version of Ammo Domino/Year of the Lord) as common usage for I don't know how long. A century? More?

Pretty much the same in German.
Rolan, what sort of reminders? AFAIK the American system is about the most secular there is - it's just that it's filledwith religious nuts who are sadly reelected every time...
Leafsnail, as far as I can see BC and AD together only say "Around the year one some dude called Christ some people consider their/the lord was born." After all I call Mohammed a prophet as well, even if I don't believe in him or most things he's said.

[martinuzz]

It could be worse. Imagine. BP and AP. Before Putin and After Putin.

[miauw62]

I am in favor of BH and AH. (Before Hitler and After Hitler)

[Leafsnail]

Leafsnail, as far as I can see BC and AD together only say "Around the year one some dude called Christ some people consider their/the lord was born." After all I call Mohammed a prophet as well, even if I don't believe in him or most things he's said.

How so?  If you accept the terminology as valid then you're accepting that we are in the days of lord Jesus.

[Rolan7]

Christ isn't a name, though, it's the title of the Jewish Messiah.  When we say BC we're saying "Before the Jewish Messiah arrived", which I can't imagine is comfortable for Jewish people who don't believe he *has* arrived.  And as Leafsnail said, the Anno Domini means "Year of our lord".  Not "their lord" or "a lord" or "some guy".  They're affirmations of Christian doctrine, exactly as designed.

I really don't want to derail the thread, but since I was asked, the major reminders I had in mind were "In God we trust" on all our currency (bills and coins) and "One nation under God" in our pledge of allegiance.  "God", not "a god".  There's also the policy of swearing on a holy book, though that's harmless symbology (and the swearer is allowed to choose the book, AFAIK).

Werty is right that Christianity dominated the world for a time, and made a significant impact.  I just don't see why that means we should keep using their religious terms instead of CE and AE.

Edit: I certainly don't think about these things often anymore, and it's easy to accept them as not worth changing right now.  I do get a bit uncomfortable when they're pointed out, though, and when people don't see the problem.  It makes me feel unwelcome.

[Tawa]

I, personally, am bothered by the use of AD and BC and prefer to use BCE and CE.

On another note, I thought that it was particularly funny how absolutely-no-religion Chrono Trigger used BC and AD.

[WealthyRadish]

One currently used dating system in some sciences is "before present", with "present" being defined as Jan. 1 1950. Or if you're in computer science, I guess it'd be 1970.

The only system that I think would be completely inoffensive would be one that 0s at an event equally important to all of humanity (good luck), or one that's event-independent. So it's just some arbitrary date that makes things weird at first, but after a while everything gets moved over anyway (like the 1950 one). That said, the US still uses fucking imperial units, so I don't see this happening any time soon. Common era is inherently still the same Christian system, but it's the most practical system from popular usage.

Also, yeah, Christian elements are present in US government and society, but I don't think it was originally like that. Tacking "in god we trust" onto our money was done fairly recently if I'm not mistaken (late 19th century?), and adding it to the pledge of allegiance is just anti-communist propaganda that's now a sacred cow of the religious right (along with all other religious symbolism in government). I think we've only had one openly atheist elected federal representative, and there are always the speeches the president gives where it seems like he's falling over himself to praise god and his faith (it's now an inaugural tradition).

[DJ]

I think it's hilarious how we're discussing cultural imperialism of the BC/AD system, and we're using English to do it even though majority of us don't speak it natively. After we pressure the world to change to BCE/CE, for en core let's make Basque the lingua franca.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

As I posted on this video (before the thread was created, actually):

While I'm another atheist who agrees it to be a non-problem, I once heard a proposal that appealed to me. It was from some sci-fi setting, I think Orion's Arm. The idea is that the moon landing becomes the start point and the acronyms are B.T. (Before Tranquility) and A.T. (After Tranquility). As such 1969 is 1 AT, it is currently October 24th, 45 AT, and Christ was supposedly born in 1969 BT.

Though as most of you know my contempt for religious structures varies between "notable" and "extreme", the problems with switching over that Lindybeige mentions are very real. The only real way to reset the calender is to get something that people far and wide will accept as a new start date. I obviously love the moon landing, and I think many others will too, but this probably won't work either. While I personally believe that space endeavors should be considered beyond nationality and sectarianism (<3 Yuri Gagarin), it is clear that most people would accuse using the moon landing as a date to be American influence (this similarly disqualifies Gagarin's orbit as well).

[Kadzar]

Christ isn't a name, though, it's the title of the Jewish Messiah.  When we say BC we're saying "Before the Jewish Messiah arrived", which I can't imagine is comfortable for Jewish people who don't believe he *has* arrived.  And as Leafsnail said, the Anno Domini means "Year of our lord".  Not "their lord" or "a lord" or "some guy".  They're affirmations of Christian doctrine, exactly as designed.

I really don't want to derail the thread, but since I was asked, the major reminders I had in mind were "In God we trust" on all our currency (bills and coins) and "One nation under God" in our pledge of allegiance.  "God", not "a god".  There's also the policy of swearing on a holy book, though that's harmless symbology (and the swearer is allowed to choose the book, AFAIK).

Werty is right that Christianity dominated the world for a time, and made a significant impact.  I just don't see why that means we should keep using their religious terms instead of CE and AE.

Edit: I certainly don't think about these things often anymore, and it's easy to accept them as not worth changing right now.  I do get a bit uncomfortable when they're pointed out, though, and when people don't see the problem.  It makes me feel unwelcome.

But as Lloyd/Lindybeige pointed out in the video, we still use the Gregorian calendar, which has many months named after Roman gods. And the days of the week are named after Norse gods for the most part, and also one Roman (at least in English; it varies by language). It seems far enough to let the people who came up with a system name things as they like.