BC/AD vs BCE/CE

[Imran Siddiqui]

+1, BCE is stupid.

[onodera]

I'm not saying he was a magical being, but the historical consensus is that he was a real person.

Any contemporary Roman or Jewish sources?

[regexcellent]

It's at the top of the wikipedia article

[Proteus_MST]

While I think that BCE/CE sounds cooler, I don´t have any problems with BC/AD.
After all, other cultures also don´t seem to see it as problematic and solve it, by having using their own calendar (for example the chinese or islamic) together with the european/christian one.

Well, if we want a neutral calendar, we should start to count our years AUC (ab urbe condita ... after the year of the legendary founding of Rome)

[Alexander's Horse]

Any contemporary Roman or Jewish sources?

Yes - Josephus and Tacitus.

[Robert]

If Jesus did or did not exist doesn't even matter for the year count. The BC/AD year count is based on the supposed birth of Jesus.
If that birth date is or is not correct, or did not even ever happen, doesn't matter. We just have that year count based on this supposed birth date.

If you want a new one, for whatever reason, make a new one.
But it's silly to rename a year count b/c you're not happy to base a year count on a certain event. Even if you rename it, you're still basing it on that event, though you're trying to keep it from sight.

It's like me divorcing my wife and insisting that the marriage anniversary would never be celebrated again, and then continuing to celebrate the exact day every year and just name it "Yearly Random Party". Of course I would be allowed to, there would not be a law against it. But it would be completely moronic.

Too bad about everybody in here agrees with me though.
I was hoping for some good debate. Life's boring when everybody agrees with you.

[giblets]

Christmas should be renamed "Annual Post-Solstice Random Party" and should be a secular holiday since Jesus if he existed probably wasn't born on December 25th.

[Alexander's Horse]

Well I totally made up my answer if it makes you feel any better.

Can I have my Apolyton Troll title back please?

[Robert]

@AH: doesn't matter to me since I already more or less had ignored your (first) answer
Make a post in misc so that we can discuss it, but don't count on it. we're not deep into handing out custom titles anymore.

@gribbler: christmas could very well be named back into "mid winter" or something, which is the original feast that was replaced. I'd even favor that, since whatever we're celebrating right now doesn't have much to do with the birth of Jesus anyway.

[dannubis]

@AH: doesn't matter to me since I already more or less had ignored your (first) answer
Make a post in misc so that we can discuss it, but don't count on it. we're not deep into handing out custom titles anymore.

@gribbler: christmas could very well be named back into "mid winter" or something, which is the original feast that was replaced. I'd even favor that, since whatever we're celebrating right now doesn't have much to do with the birth of Jesus anyway.

Why would one care about his birth anyway. It was how he died that was "teh ****z" no ?

[Ben Kenobi]

christmas could very well be named back into "mid winter" or something, which is the original feast that was replaced. I'd even favor that, since whatever we're celebrating right now doesn't have much to do with the birth of Jesus anyway.

Maybe for atheists. Some of us celebrate Advent.

[onodera]

Why would one care about his birth anyway. It was how he died that was "teh ****z" no ?

That's why Easter is the most important day for Orthodox Christians.

[regexcellent]

In principle Easter is more important for Catholics too.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It's technically more important for every Christian.

[Robert]

Christmas wasn't celebrated until it was introduced later on, more to counter the pagan mid-winter then to truely celebrate a christian feast.

Originally eastern was celebrated every sunday, btw.
Church gathers on the day of Jesus resurrection. (the day of the lord).