In this article, http://news.yahoo.com/s/livesc...searliertextsuggests
it is stated that BC=BCE. I don't think so. Since I'm not a Christian I see the term, "Before Christ" as nonsense, and since the historical date of birth of the person whom Christians call "Christ" has never been pinpointed, "Before Common Era" makes much more sense. Am I splitting hairs, or does this make sense to others?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Geoff, January 17, 2010 09:09

You have to start your dates from sometime - and one mythical figure is much the same as another mythical figure do far as I can see. It would be nice if we could all agree on the same mythical figure, though, so we all use the same calender.

Someone stole my colander so I've been desieved.

I find that comment really draining, Proof!

quote:

Since I'm not a Christian I see the term, "Before Christ" as nonsense,

I am with you completely on this, Geoff. It has amazed me, with all the scientific advances we've made, that we haven't come to a more scientific term than BC. I also am not aware of any complaints about its use, which surprises me. Maybe I've just missed them.

Actually, the <number>AD|BC convention was a spectacular advance over the previous system, which was to specify dates with something like "in the days when Herod was king of Judea". But why is AD an abbreviation for a Latin phrase and BC an abbreviation for an English one?

I was amazed to learn just how many dating systems there are - I make it around 30 according to this Wikipedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_era

I thought that maybe a thoroughly practical system, not based on deities or other persons' supposed lifetimes, would be the best. Then I read the article on Unix time - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_epoch - I am sure that there must be people around who understand it...

quote:

Then I read the article on Unix time [...] I am sure that there must be people around who understand it...

That article was obviously written by a Unix geek. Reams of information but virtually no intelligible content to non-geeks. Anyone who wanted to find out about Unix time at that level of detail would consult the documentation or a Unix-specific site, not a general site like Wikipedia. That article should have been drastically pruned by the editors.

I have always found how people track time (from seconds to years) to be a fascinating subject. Is it to be a solar or lunar calendar or a solar-lunar hybrid. Some people are still using the Julian calendar, e.g., most of the Eastern Orthodox churches calculate Christmas and Easter based on a system that must be more than a fortnight out of sync with the Gregorian calendar by now. When did the British stop labeling their laws (acts and such) by the reigning monarch's name and year of reign. The Japanese still keep track of eras named for their emperors.

Is it not odd that we've gone to the base ten metric system, but have kept units of twelve for time and distance?

quote:

Is it not odd that we've gone to the base ten metric system, but have kept units of twelve for time and distance?

It's our tribute to the aliens that spawned us.

My family stuck with the French Republican calendar. Happy Decadi, everybody!