BC/BCE

Watching the first episode of Civilisation (I can remember watching the first one presented by art historian Kenneth Clark!) and Simon Schama kept saying BCE when referring to dates, i.e. 40,000 years BCE or whatever, and I wondered what the hell he was on about.

Just looked it up. Before Common Era, which is EXACTLY the same as BC; BUT of course, wouldn't upset non-Christians.

Now I am not religious in the slightest way, but does it really matter that much? Jewish people have accepted the presence of Jesus Christ in this country for millennia, so why do we have to now bend over backwards so as not to upset all the other religions?

How much longer are we going to bash ourselves over the head with apologies to all and sundry? I'm just waiting now for someone to blame the British for the pillaging of South America by the Spanish conquistadors.

I haven't caught up with the new Civilisations yet, but was coincidentally thinking about this nonsense just the other night. I have no idea where it comes from, but it really is awful. The most childish example of politically correct nannying, pandering and prissiness.

What are we going to call Easter?

I've always assumed it had more to do with presenter's atheism than political correctness.

I couldn't care less if people use BC, but I also couldn't care less if they use BCE instead.
Doesn't really affect anything in my life either way.

Quote: DaButt @ 4th March 2018, 3:44 PM

I've always assumed it had more to do with presenter's atheism than political correctness.

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And that could be an answer not that that should make any difference, but in an article I read about him this week, when asked about what he would like at his funeral he said he wanted The Kaddish or Qaddish. which is a hymn of praises to God found in Jewish prayer services. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name apparently, which hardly suggests that he was an atheist.

Whatever, if you asked I think you would find that most people would not know what BC or AD meant, so they would look it up and so defeat the point of being ultra PC.

Why not PD - Pre Domini if you are that fussed, but by simply adding an 'E' onto BC you have only highlighted the "problem" that didn't exist in the first place.

Change for the sake of it and/or pandering to the sad people who are no better than big stirrers and have nothing better to do with their meaningless lives than look at every tiny aspect that at the end of the day matters not one jot.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 4th March 2018, 5:09 PM

Why not PD - Pre Domini if you are that fussed, but by simply adding an 'E' onto BC you have only highlighted the "problem" that didn't exist in the first place.

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I suspect - perhaps perversely - they went for just sticking an E on the end believing that that would be simpler to explain than a whole new thing.

(Besides, Domini is presumably the problematic bit.)

They HAVE changed the whole thing, it's just that BC was always used more than AD because unless we're referring to the 1st or 2nd C AD we don't tend to say AD. But you aren't allowed to say that now if you're a teacher.

School books and exam papers all have replaced it with CE - common era, so Christ was crucified in 33 CE, if they teach that at all now.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 4th March 2018, 12:17 PM

Jewish people have accepted the presence of Jesus Christ in this country for millennia, so why do we have to now bend over backwards so as not to upset all the other religions?

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Muslims do as well but neither believe he was the son of God but a mere deluded self publicist.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 4th March 2018, 7:40 PM

Muslims do as well but neither believe he was the son of God but a mere deluded self publicist.

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I seem to recall that both actually regard him as a prophet.

Yes a false prophet. Otherwise I think they'd be Christians themselves. Modern multi faith protocol means they tend not to insult the other religion now by denying their beliefs but they ARE opposing religions who DO oppose their beliefs, so PC has been at work for a long time making a complete mess out of reality. The only honest ones are the extremists who openly reject each others' validity.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 4th March 2018, 7:40 PM

Muslims do as well but neither believe he was the son of God but a mere deluded self publicist.

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I read many years ago that some Jews thought Jesus was no better than a cheap magician with his so called "miracles".

I'm with Zooo.

Plus, this is a really dated (not meant as a pun) qualm. People have been using BCE for at least a decade or two perhaps longer. Why is it suddenly an annoyance? It seems pretty innocuous to me.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 4th March 2018, 11:37 PM

I read many years ago that some Jews thought Jesus was no better than a cheap magician with his so called "miracles".

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I still totally think Jesus was a magician. I love magicians and am a huge magic nerd. I'm not religious, it's just my fan theory as it were. Either that or he was mad ( like madmen too for the record). That's the usual one when starting religions). [this is probably very offensive, and I do apologise]

Quote: Davida @ 5th March 2018, 12:00 AM

Plus, this is a really dated (not meant as a pun) qualm. People have been using BCE for at least a decade or two perhaps longer. Why is it suddenly an annoyance?

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Sounds like it's an American thing then. It's rare here but slowly becoming more prevalent. I only discovered it a couple of years ago myself.

Plus, Schama is a US resident.

Ah, really? Now that I did not know. It's been a pretty well-formalised thing in universities and within the scientific community here. It started switching over when I was maybe 10 or 11, so around the year 2000. That's my best guess anyway.

It's not innocuous to the catholic church, they hate it and refuse to use it in their schools or publications. It's actually a pretty big deal when it means changing the usage accepted for more than a thousand years.

Even as a non religious type I'd refuse to use the new form because it is just petty political correctness by neo Stalinists trying to censor how we speak and think. F**k 'em, Nero fiddled with himself in 65AD etc. AD is strongly recognisable, CE makes me think of a plug on a new toaster.