Posted on 02/06/2005 10:39:56 PM PST by Seniram US
After watching a few minutes of the History Channel regarding the Bible, I noticed no mention of B.C. or A.D. Wondering if anyone else is familiar with the new trend.
For quite some time as I do reference work, it is becoming much more frequent to see the abbreviations C. E. in place of A.D. and B.C.E. in place of B.C.
It seems as if no one is responsible directly as it is slowly being slipped into use without any fanfare. However, it is becoming extremely obvious at least to me that Before Christ and Year of Our Lord is being eliminated from online encyclopedias.
Now for the first time, I have seen it on television as the various specialists (on the Bible) use the term B.C.E. and C.E., which appears to be another under the radar attempt to eliminate the use of the word Christ and Lord when referencing historucal and contemporary years.
There doesn't appear to be any specific organization to send complaints, but if the trend continues, the words Before Christ (B.C.) and Year of Our Lord (A.D.) will vanish before the general public even notices.
The History Channel's show tonight (Sunday) was totally unexpected, although I have noticed the absence of the reference to Chirst during research for quite some time.
I'm just curious to know if others are noticing the same trend and if it is known if any Christian organizations are working to reverse the trend.
Ironically, several years ago, one of our parish priests requested that everyone that dates their check should also ad A.D., yet I doubt that at the time he was aware of what is happening.
YOu might think I'm imagining this, but I assure you that if you begin research, you will encounter the troubling trend. You might just want to keep a check on it.
Personally, I think it is sinister, camouflaged under political correctness.
Its part of the left's agenda to wash any mention Christianity from all public places.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/ce.htm
Sorry I forgot something.
B.C.E. stands for Before Common Era (Instead of Before Christ).
C.E. stands for Common Era (Instead of Year of Our Lord).
This has been going on for several years now. The only place you won't see it is in some homeschooling curricula, or possible curricula for Christian schools.
religious cleansing
I went to a Baptist run university for my undergraduate degree, and in our OT and NT classes, the prof used the abbreviations BCE and CE with everything we did.
He said that it is used in research articles and related work because this field is covered by both Jewish and Christian scholars. It's a compromise of sorts.
I won't cooperate with these terms. When people say "happy holidays" to me, I always respond with "merry Christmas".
If they say CE, I'll repeat the date with "Christian Era", or AD, without correcting them or making a big deal.
Wha the heck! Thanks for the heads up! How weird! Sounds like a bunch of Communists at work again.
SKREU "compromise". That's for sissies and your prof needed to read Doug giles. (www.clashradio.com)
If anyone you talk to argues the CE vs AD usage, just shrug your shoulders and say, "Since you hate Christianity, I guess it actually is the year 4,675,491,652" since it has been about 4.6 billion years since the Earth formed.
The attempt to replace A.D. with C.E., and B.C. with B.C.E. has been going since at least the sixties--and possibly before that. The reason usually given is that the Gregorian calendar is the de facto (and usually the de jure) civil calendar for the entire world, and so needs to be made as culturally and religiously neutral as possible.
I strongly object to the "C.E." and "B.C.E" usages--and I'm an atheist. I feel it is historically incorrect, and more imporatantly, it denies the West its own cultural traditions. To make the Gregorian calendar the sole target of such revisionism, without also asking the same of the Jews, Muslims, Persians, Hindus, Chinese (and numerous others, who also have their own calendrical systems, and epoch dates important to them)is both unfair and hypocritical.
I have no more problem saying 'in the year 2005 A.D.' than I do saying 'in the year 5765 A.M.'--even though "AD" means 'in the year of the lord' and 'AM' means 'in the year of the world.' Just because I don't believe in Christ, and don't believe the world was created in the evening of September 6, 3761 BC (Gregorian,) is no good reason to disrepect the culture of the people whose calendars traditionally use those terms to label the years since the epoch dates of their calendars.
And what year numbering system would you suggest Jewish scholars use when they write articles? The years of the Jewish Calendar, or the years of the Christian Calendar?
Of course the choice of letters lends itself to Before Christian Era
and
Christian Era
Thankfully it is not universally adopted. BC and AD still appear frequently enough.
The History Channel apparently took great precautions to say, not spell the abbreviations, Common Era, etc.
The bottom line is the date is meaningless without the reference, and Christ is a better reference than anything anyone else has come up with.
I am curious as to how you can not believe in Christ, purely from a secular standpoint of believing His existence, not in the religious sense of believing Him to be the son of God.
Being an atheist would certainly preclude belief in the son of Deity, but I do not believe discounting the existence of Jesus of Nazereth the man is a tenable position.
Some professors will count off if you use BC and AD. I heard of one who actually stated she would not accept or read papers using it, and would hand them back with a failing mark.
Excuse me for not being clear. Yes, disbelieving in the existence of the man whom Christians believe is the Annointed One of God is untenable.
I disbelieve that the Bible is God's word. And I find no particular reason to believe in the existence of a Creator or First Cause, and in fact find such a concept to be implausible at best. Also, I believe that if there is a God, that it would be extremely unlikely that he/she/it/they would resemble the God portrayed in the Bible.
those professors need to be exposed.
The result would be the same as "under God" in the pledge. It is now the phrase that is NAILED with any eny recotatopm.
So lets nme names.
Interesting. Conversely, as a theist I am okay with others using CE and BCE.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.