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BCE/CE or BC/AD?

Which do you use?

  • Total voters
    47
Karkat Vantas said:
I use BC. I've never used the term "AD/CE" at any point in my life and BC/BCE sound more or less identical, so...
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Er, BC and AD are used in conjunction and refer to separate time frames. This year is either AD 2011 or 2011 CE. And BC and BCE sound "identical" because CE means "common era" and BCE just means "before common era". Totally simple.
 
I mean, I just refer to it as "2011" and not "AD 2011".

Also, am I the only person who finds it funny how everybody is rushing to switching to use BCE/CE now that they're aware of them?
 
It's because that one doesn't have a mythological connotation, whereas BC/AD obviously refers to Christianity
 
Tarvos said:
It's because that one doesn't have a mythological connotation, whereas BC/AD obviously refers to Christianity
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The turning point between the two eras is still the birth of Jesus, so it's still religious.

And even then, they're so far removed from their original meaning that BC/AD are more or less secular; regardless, I find it silly that you must use the non-religious terms to refer to the year.
 
Aobaru said:
Not anymore, anyway.
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Your point?

The turning point between the two eras is still the birth of Jesus, so it's still religious.
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As Aobaru pointed out earlier, not all sources agree that that's actually true. :P

And even then, they're so far removed from their original meaning that BC/AD are more or less secular; regardless, I find it silly that you must use the non-religious terms to refer to the year.
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Forgive us for wanting history to be more secular.
 
Karkat Vantas said:
If only...

Actually, I'm curious-- why isn't the turning point the fall of the Roman Empire? If I had to decide, that would be the best event to divide history between.
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Because the Roman Empire didn't fall in a single year.
 
opaltiger said:
Because the Roman Empire didn't fall in a single year.
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Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't 476 the year that Rome fell? Obviously the empire was in decline beforehand but something important (the murder of the last Roman emperor, iirc) occurred then.

Then again I was never good in history class so I'm probably wrong.
 
Karkat Vantas said:
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't 476 the year that Rome fell? Obviously the empire was in decline beforehand but something important (the murder of the last Roman emperor, iirc) occurred then.

Then again I was never good in history class so I'm probably wrong.
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The Western Roman Empire "fell" in 476 (it was split in 285). The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) merrily continued existing.
 
I've been told that these days it's more historically accurate to say that Rome didn't 'fall', it just moved east to the Byzantine Empire.
 
yes. I just said that.

and since they're all arbitrary, "whatever is in common use" seems a pretty damn good choice of epoch to me.
 
Which BCE uses without having a reference to a mythology that maybe 1/6th of the world believe in!
 
I see no point in the introduction of BCE and CE, nothing significant divides them, they are just PC versions of BC and AD.
BC and AD are better because they actually bother saying what the difference is.
 
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