BC or BCE, AD or CE?

[MontyVeda]

I was just looking at an article on wikipedia and noticed the use of BCE and CE (Befre Common Era and Common Era) instead of the more common BC and AD.

As a non christian... I've never had a problem with Before Christ and Anno Domini and just figured the use of BCE and CE was newfangled thing conjured by neo atheists who aren't comfortable having any aspect of an ancient religion smearing their modern lives.


However having a look at wikipedea, it's origins go back much further than i initially thought.

Do you use BCE instead of BC? CE instead of AD?

Personally I can't see the point of it. It's like dropping the 'christ' and 'lord' from our calendar is ignoring the origins of our calendar.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I'd never really though about it, I've only ever used 'BC' as any positive year (0635, 1266, 1422 etc etc) I always thought never needed 'AD' . I also thought for many years that 'AD' stood for 'After Death'

 

[Chromatic]

I am a BC/AD person.

 

[guitarpete247]

I was taught BC & AD so use them. I know it's now UTC but I still use GMT as well

.

 

[accountantpete]

I'm an AC/DC person.

 

[MontyVeda]

I'd never really though about it, I've only ever used 'BC' as any positive year (0635, 1266, 1422 etc etc) I always thought never needed 'AD' . I also thought for many years that 'AD' stood for 'After Death'

After Death was just a convenient Englishism that never really worked, as Anno Dominni means in the year of our lord and therefore runs from the birth of Jesus rather than his death... we could confuse matters further by stating that jesus was born in the days of Herod, who died in 4BC... so even Jesus was 'before' christ! but lets not go there!

 

[wiggydiggy]

After Death was just a convenient Englishism that never really worked, as Anno Dominni means in the year of our lord and therefore runs from the birth of Jesus rather than his death... we could confuse matters further by stating that jesus was born in the days of Herod, who died in 4BC... so even Jesus was 'before' christ! but lets not go there!

Ahh so 'after death' it is a real term then and I didnt just make it up! I dont feel as foolish now lol And yes lets not go there

 

[growingvegetables]

Do you use BCE instead of BC? CE instead of AD?

I use both sets fairly freely - but then my "specialist subject" was comparative religion, and I like history.

I prefer BCE/CE - and there are subjects where its use just "fits" better. But it's not a big deal - just a bit of pedantic accuracy

 

[User482]

Jesus isn't my lord, so I prefer an alternative to AD.

 

[HLaB]

I'm an AC/DC person.

Spell it

 

[numbnuts]

I lived with BC & AD all my life, I ain't going to change now

 

[Melonfish]

interchangable tbh, but i know a few wiccan's and druids that will happily correct you if you use BC/AD
as a druid myself i'm not all that fussed, its just a way to distinguish between era's in my mind.

 

[Christopher]

I was reading a non-fiction book about Judaism and it used the CE/BCE terms. At first I didn't mind but it became really irritating after a few chapters. It's what you grow up with I guess, I don't have any religious belief.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I was taught AD and BC at school, but have come across CE and BCE in books about religion. I know CE and BCE is more culturally sensitive to non Christians, but the CE/BCE terms still annoy me. What does common era mean? CE and BCE are still estimated from the birth of Christ. Even if you dropped the AD/BC/CE/BCE suffixes altogether and just uses the minus symbol for BC (which you couldn't because there's no year zero) the dates would still be estimated from the birth of Christ.

 

[Chris S]

I'm an AC/DC person.

Do you realize that's slang for bisexual?