It works in non-Christian countries too. In my part of India, I am certain of the following: Tuesday = Mars , Thursday = Jupiter, Saturday = Saturn, Sunday = the Sun. The other days I’m not sure of. In Hindi the derivation is probably the same so perhaps some more knowledgeable person can fill in the blanks. Perhaps the proto-Indo-European language is the source.
And, of course, not just the ancient Romans; we used to start the year on Lady Day (25th March), so you occasionally see old tombstones for a baby that was born in, say, August and died February the same year.
Wasn’t January the first month of the year named for Janus a 2 faced god looking both backwards and forwards?
Were July and August added in out of order to push September back to ninth?
No, because in that case English Tuesday would be the same as the cognate jeudi / giovedi / jueves. I read once that the astronomical reference to the planets was primary, and the fact that the planets were named for various gods was secondary. In other words, Tuesday is Tuesday because *Tiwaz was the name of the red planet, not because it was the name of the war god. (Of course, the planets were probably named by interpretatio, so it’s a bit chicken-and-egg.)
They don’t because religion is a social bonding ritual, and for them, the names of the days is so entrenched in culture that they don’t even think about making an issue out of it, to then use and declare their superiority over everyone else.
Many other Christian celebrations and deeply entrenched customs have pagan origins. So what?
If they can bless slavery for 1,500 years and live with it, they can do away with trivial pagan associations with their religion.
No. The Roman year stated with March, so the numbered ones (September - December) matched. The last 2 months (January & February) were in the middle of winter and originally probably had no names because that time wasn’t important to a mainly agricultural civilization. They were given names later on. And since Latin didn’t really have words for eleventh and twelfth, they were named after Roman gods. And February was the end of the year, so the extra leap year day was added there. (Sometimes several days, because the Roman calendar of that time wasn’t very exact.)
And July & August were originally “Quintilis” (5th month) and “Sextilis” (6th month), but were renamed to honor Julius & Augustus Caesar.
The types who go to “Quake Churches” (this is actually the majority, but most of them are in Africa) rather than “Quaker Meetings” are often indistinguishable from other evangelical christian churches, although I’m not so up and up on what counts as “fundamentalist”.
As for first/third month/day etc., we use it on official documents and meeting minutes and such, but that’s about it. Kind of silly IMO, but by this point is comfortably familiar for me.
This isn’t the best example: the Bible does not condemn slavery.
It certainly does. Read the Christian book, you’ll see.
Could you please give a more specific cite? I typed “Christian” into Amazon.com and this is what I got as the first hit: People Every Christian Should Know. I’m afraid I don’t have time to page through all 500,000 results, so I’ll just point you to Wikipedia’s “The Bible and slavery”. Honestly, you can certainly say that the fundamental precepts of Christianity are not compatible with slavery, or the words of Jesus, but if you just say “the Bible,” you’re flat-out wrong.
Maybe they don’t for the same reason those people who get their knickers in a bunch over BC/AD (versus BCE/CE) don’t either.
Ask the Catholic divine leaders why they blessed slavery for 1,500 years, until some Pope publicly denounced it, in our modern times.
If any person can claim religious justification for their behavior, then they are wrong, by definition, because no gods exist.
Cite for “blessed salvery”?
Cite for “no gods exist”?
Cite for your actually caring about the answer?
I’m very non-Christian, but I use BC and AD. Because it’s conventional, it doesn’t hurt anything, and clearly intelligible meaning for the reader matters more than quibbling over pointless arcana.
It’s as conventional as saying “dear” in a letter’s salutation, when the addressee actually means nothing to you. As Miss Manners points out, it isn’t supposed to mean anything. It’s just conventional. Conventional means a) it serves the purpose it’s intended for with a minimum of bother; b) the original derivation of the term is beside the point.
This is the information age. Read something. Even Drake’s Wikipedia cite is a place to start.
Sigh. The burden of proof is that your version of deity exists. Put up or… well, you know the rest. *
You may be posting in the wrong forum. 
- Jack
- Good thing I’m in a reasonably good mood.
ETA: Drake’s cite was the BIBLE and Slavery. Try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_slavery
Maybe we need more such reason. Christians need to continue to accept all the pagan names of months and days, while non Christians accept BC and AD.
We could compromise. Jesuary, February, March, April, Mary, June…
And just to note the quoting tags upthread are seriously messed up.
[Moderator Note]
Let’s not sidetrack this into a discussion of whether or not gods exist, but try to stick to the question in the OP.
The slavery question is pretty much irrelevant too.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
So that’s a no.
Wow, you’re sooooo clever with the whole “information age” stuff, super cool.
No, sorry, this is the information age and you should know that the burden of proof lies with the person making the assessment.
I’m posting in the right forum, I’m simply no in the mood of trying to explain something to a person no even remotely willing to hear.
[Moderator Instruction]
I’m assuming you didn’t see my note above. If you want to continue this discussion, please open an new thread in GD. Let’s drop this discussion here.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator