# CE and BCE **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 10, 2014, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009 "2014-02-10T22:12:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/21 "2014-02-11T01:51:32Z")
UNIX epoch — Jan 1st, 1970 — we have seen the future ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/22 "2014-02-11T03:17:14Z")
> [@digs](#): > > W-w-wait, what? “After Death”?!? Do they think Jesus was born in Year Zero, but then we measure AD from his death… 35 years later? So there’s a third of a century unaccounted for? And anything that happened during Jesus’s lifetime has no date?\* In the 70s, when I was in 5th grade, I had an otherwise intelligent teacher that thought it was “After Death.” I went all Websters on his misconception. ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Capt\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/23 "2014-02-11T03:25:41Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > UNIX epoch — Jan 1st, 1970 — we have seen the future Now this is a date system I can get behind. I was born 5 1/2 months later. 😃 **Capt** ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/24 "2014-02-11T06:02:56Z")
> [@Capt\_Kirk](#): > > Now this is a date system I can get behind. I was born 5 1/2 months later. Hmm, so can I give my birthdate as May 17, 4 BUE? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/25 "2014-02-11T06:09:54Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You misspelled deluded. hurr durr xians r teh retardz ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/26 "2014-02-11T06:22:41Z")
I think the CE/BCE is useful for theological historians. I think they’d feel weird writing stuff like “Jesus was born 4 years Before Christ.” ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/27 "2014-02-11T06:29:46Z")
> [@digs](#): > > W-w-wait, what? “After Death”?!? Do they think Jesus was born in Year Zero, but then we measure AD from his death… 35 years later? So there’s a third of a century unaccounted for? And anything that happened during Jesus’s lifetime has no date?\* > > And if you say "Well, they say “After Death”, but they really mean “After Birth” – that’s pretty stupid, too. > > Excuse my head exploding at people’s ignorance. > \*So, Augustus Caesar died between _“Before Christ”_ and _“After Death”_, so Tiberius became his successor in… umm, no particular year. > > “Hey, Lazarus, we missed ya-- when’d you get back?”\* “Uhh, Tuesday of… lemme check my calendar… oh, crap, that’s right.”\* If you insist on AD being “After Death” it would be better to handwave Before Christ with some talk about Jesus not “truly” being The Christ™ until he died, and move the starting line forward about 30 years to his death. (So Jesus was born 30-40 BC or so) **IF** you wanted to do that. Which you wouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/28 "2014-02-11T07:27:00Z")
I always use before common era / common era. If you’re not in the religious haze, talking about ancient history, science, etc., it reminds us of some realities-- like the Earth is waaaay old and not everyone is Christian. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/29 "2014-02-11T07:56:48Z")
I hate BCE/CE because all it takes is one illegible pen stroke to read one as the other. Then we have total Godless malarkey: green aliens hanging out with the Flintstones, Jetsons visiting the Stone Age. Don’t care able the religious aspect, or else I’d wish people Happy HolyDays, sorry Holidays. To be especially Satanic (according to Jack Chick), I only use Anno Lucis. Conveniently exactly 4000 years shifted. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/30 "2014-02-11T09:24:21Z")
Please change January also – as I recall it’s named after a pagan god. And what do Egyptians think about August, named after the guy who likely murdered their beautiful Queen? (And I’m surprised Joe McCarthy tolerated the month of May, named after the Communist May Day festival. 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/31 "2014-02-11T09:36:28Z")
I prefer BCE and CE now that I’m sued to them; I always used to wonder why Europeans thought they had a lock on which calendar to use and what year it _really_ is. I gotta say tho, I prefer “Current” over “Common”. Current is a terrific descriptor that places the era in context with other eras, while acknowledging that history and our descendants will name our era, as we have named past eras. Common is a lackluster descriptor that means bupkis and has no context other than “right now”. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/32 "2014-02-11T09:44:27Z")
For me it’ll always be BC / AD, no muss, no fuss ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/33 "2014-02-11T11:27:47Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Maybe not to you, but to people growing up and learning it for the first time, they will consider CE and BCE to be the default and a hundred years from now nobody will even remember we used to use BC and AD So they won’t be able to understand old books. Way to fight historical ignorance! :rolleyes: I agree with **kanic**. The CE BCE thing solves no genuine problem. It is pointless political correctness that still leaves us with a Christocentric dating system, now merely lightly disguised, and the phrase “common era” means absolutely fuck all! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/34 "2014-02-11T11:33:42Z")
> [@LibrarySpy](#): > > BC and BCE have been used since the 16th century. Don’t you think it’s time to get over it? If that is true it is the clearest evidence one could ask for of how unpopular they are. They have been _veeeeeeeeery_ slow to catch on. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/35 "2014-02-11T12:46:48Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Hmm, so can I give my birthdate as May 17, 4 BUE? er … no … if you were born at exactly midnight GMT on that date, your birthsecond would be -114,480,000 UE. It’s currently 1,392,122,580 UE or a few seconds after. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/36 "2014-02-11T13:33:14Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > In the 70s, when I was in 5th grade, I had an otherwise intelligent teacher that thought it was “After Death.” I went all Websters on his misconception. In the late 60s when I was in 5th grade my otherwise intelligent teacher urged us to learn the metric system, since the US would be on it very soon. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/37 "2014-02-11T13:59:57Z")
My workplace has lab–which uses the metric system. As an office droid, I’m aware of both systems, although the English one is the default for non-technical procedures. Anybody working in the sciences will use the metric system. So it is with BC/AD and BCE/CE. We’ve got some old files–but not that old! In an environment where it matters, I’ll use the preferred system. No math is required & I can handle the alphabet fairly well… ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/38 "2014-02-11T14:06:01Z")
It’s amazing how people see what they want to see regardless of what is written. It actually explains a lot. When you assume you make a ass out of you: > [@mhendo](#): > > Religious nutbar OP doesn’t like the terms BCE and CE. Also doesn’t know what they actually stand for. > > In other religious news, Pope still Catholic. I suggest carefully rereading, use a dictionary if you need to understand some of the words. Specifically my suggestion is to look op the meaning of ‘coopt’. May Thor strike you on the head with his hammer of wisdom and break through your shell of prejudice that blinds you into only seeing what you wish to see. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/39 "2014-02-11T14:18:07Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > For me it’ll always be BC / AD, no muss, no fuss And what’s with people wanting me to switch from “icebox” or “britches” or “pickaninny”? I’ll just stick with what I’m used to. No muss, no fuss. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009/40 "2014-02-11T14:18:17Z")
I’m a semi-militant atheist who was raised Hindu, and I think CE and BCE are pointless affectations. Our calendar is based on the putative birth of Christ. Changing its name won’t do anything to fix that. Get over it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ce-and-bce/681009.md?page=3)