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[Muz]

To answer OP: As an atheist, don't matter at all to me.  Its just what humanity has been using for... over 2000 years.  So it is what it is.  No need to get uppity about it and change what ain't broke.

It was actually codified centuries after Jesus. And it isn't what a good portion of humanity uses.

Huh? What does humanity use then? I know the Islamic nations use their own calendar, but that's mainly because their calendar is built around moon cycles (months) instead of earth cycles (years).

[Playergamer]

The Big Bang Theory, fyi/iirc, was created by a catholic, and originally denied by most because it seemed too much like creationism.

[Neonivek]

The Big Bang Theory, fyi/iirc, was created by a catholic, and originally denied by most because it seemed too much like creationism.

For a second I thought you were talking about the show because I was like "Well... that would explain all the racism, and sexism, and anti-Semitism"

[Orange Wizard]

It explains a lot, actually.

[martinuzz]

To answer OP: As an atheist, don't matter at all to me.  Its just what humanity has been using for... over 2000 years.  So it is what it is.  No need to get uppity about it and change what ain't broke.

It was actually codified centuries after Jesus. And it isn't what a good portion of humanity uses.

Huh? What does humanity use then? I know the Islamic nations use their own calendar, but that's mainly because their calendar is built around moon cycles (months) instead of earth cycles (years).

If you add the Chinese, and muslims of the world together, you already have about half of humanity, not using AD/BC

[Helgoland]

I think the Chinese and 'Muslims' (funny, I knew a Turkish guy at my school, and I'm pretty sure he used BC/AD...) already use BC/AD for international matters.
Plus even if you discount that, there's still a plurality for BC/AD.

[Culise]

If you add the Chinese, and muslims of the world together, you already have about half of humanity, not using AD/BC

Chinese official calender has been the Gregorian calendar since 1912; the Chinese lunisolar calendar is used mostly for holidays, superstition determination of auspicious dates for events, and the like.  Same applies to Korea (though today only the South; the north uses the Juche calendar), except they adopted the Gregorian in 1896. 
^{By the bye, as a fun aside, this actually puts both countries ahead of Russia, which only switched over in 1918.  In fact, some analogies could be drawn between the continued use of the Chinese lunisolar calendar in China and the Julian calendar in many Eastern Orthodox churches.}

[martinuzz]

Heh, I guess only Chinese people in the Netherlands insist on using the Chinese calendar instead of their own then. I remember lawsuits by Chinese;
In the Netherlands, buying and setting of (light) fireworks is only allowed on new year's eve, and the day before that. There have been lawsuits by the Chinese community, against the state, because they felt discriminated by not being allowed to set off fireworks on Chinese new year's day. This had as a result the Chinese are the only people over here allowed to publicly set off fireworks on a usually illegal day, without the need for a special permit.

[Culise]

Heh, I guess only Chinese people in the Netherlands insist on using the Chinese calendar instead of their own then. I remember lawsuits by Chinese;
In the Netherlands, buying and setting of (light) fireworks is only allowed on new year's eve, and the day before that. There have been lawsuits by the Chinese community, against the state, because they felt discriminated by not being allowed to set off fireworks on Chinese new year's day. This had as a result the Chinese are the only people over here allowed to publicly set off fireworks on a usually illegal day, without the need for a special permit.

That would be the holiday use I mentioned; the Chinese New Year is dated using the lunisolar calendar.  Most other such festivals, celebrations, days of remembrance, and the like are also dated using the lunisolar calendar as well, and would only correspond 1:1 with particular Gregorian solar dates when those also happen to fall on dates used as reference points in both calendars (such as solstices and equinoxes, or holidays tied directly or indirectly to such).  For business and most other activities, the Gregorian calender is nonetheless preferred. 

[Leafsnail]

I don't think there's anywhere in the world where the "common era" isn't at least known in some capacity (although not everywhere uses the BC/AD terminology).  It would just be confusing to deal with people from outside the country otherwise.

[martinuzz]

This thread was the first time I heard about 'common era'. Looks like we Dutch, even though famous for being an internationalist trade nation, are not educated about that in school. It sounds like it came from some fantasy novel. Or I am too old for that, since it has been nearly 20 years since I graduated now. Maybe common era was invented after that.

[Redzephyr01]

Common era has been around for at least a few decades.

[Leafsnail]

This came up earlier in the thread, Jewish scholars have been using BCE/CE since at least the mid 19th century (which really answers the OP question, they were obviously offended enough to stop using it).

It started gaining more mainstream favour in academic circles in the 1980s.

[BlindKitty]

Interestingly, in Poland we use p.n.e. and n.e. (yes, like that, with dots and minuscules), and those stand for przed naszą erą and naszej ery, which is before our era and of our era, respectively. If I am not mistaken, communism did that, seeing as AD was too Christian for them, but it is hard to find source for that quickly, so it might not be true. Wikipedia suggest that before that, we used Latin abbreviations: AC and AD, which stands for ante Christum, before Christ, and Anno Domini. So at least we are consistent with using the same language for both abbreviations.

That said, I'm actually using AD when writing dates on documents and stuff, because I'm Christian. Actually, I have a simple solution - let everybody use any abbreviation they want, as long as everybody knows what they mean, and as long as there is common starting point, and we will all be happy.

Also, using negative numbers seems to be prevalent in astronomy, along with using zero year; at least that's what Wikipedia tells me, so I don't know how reliable is that information (it's Polish Wiki, mind you, so it might be somewhat limited in relevance in other places).

[MonkeyHead]

The Big Bang Theory, fyi/iirc, was created by a catholic, and originally denied by most because it seemed too much like creationism.

Almost true. It was suggested by a Catholic priest (Georges Lemaitre) who was working as a Physicist in a university under the tutelage of some of the greatest minds in the world at that point. It was ejected initially for a number of reasons, amongst which were the relative lack of experimental evidence to support the interesting theory which arose out of particular solutions to some of Einstein's equations of relativity, and the fact that Steady State theories were supported by "Old heads" such as Fred Hoyle whose words carried a lot of weight. Lemaitre did use the words "creation-like event", which porobably did not help his cause much. It only took 2 years for Hubble to show he was right though.

Derail over, you may now return to your original programme.