Posted on 09/26/2011 2:58:25 PM PDT by knighthawk
The BBC is the largest broadcaster in the world.
And until a decade ago, was the finest broadcaster in the world. Bar none. No one, not CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox or the CBC could match the depth and quality of the BBC’s output: drama, comedy, documentaries, news coverage, sports, science fiction, current affairs. Not to mention BBC radio: comedy, drama, science fiction, documentaries, sport, national/world events.
British TV was for many years regarded as the best in the world, and the BBC produced much of what made British TV the best. Not all, but most.
Alas, there has been a pandering in the last 10-15 years to the lowest common denominator, but the BBC can still make drama, sci-fi and comedy to match anyone, its sports coverage is still first rate, and the BBC’s documentaries are still second to none, esp their nature documentaries.
Utter, utter crap.
State sponsored and extremely left wing. But other than that, its a fine channel.....
It has exactly the meaning they want it to, it’s a common calendaring system you can use to bridge multiple cultures that don’t use the same system. It’s not like this is a new invention, CE has been around for 400 years.
BCE = Before the Christian era
CE = Christian era
That’s how I read those notations every time I see them.
“It has exactly the meaning they want it to...’
I say Spanish speaking people should drop the name Domingo for Sunday, since that means the Lord’s Day, so as not to offend others who don’t go to service on Sundays. They should call it Common Day. It has exactly the meaning I want it to.
What’s that? Oh yeah, Common and Day are both English words. They won’t span different cultures with different languages. Oy vey, now what do I do?
So it’s not true. I was just looking for confirmation.
Yaawn. Way to completely run away from the point like it’s on fire. It’s not about the calendar of one culture, it’s about dealing with the calendar of a culture that’s other than the people trying to navigate it. How do you explain to a group of people who don’t know Chinese history when something happened in China? You can’t use the Chinese calendar, your audience doesn’t understand it, if you use the calendar of your audience you’re projecting their culture on the Chinese event you’re trying to discuss, so instead you come up with a common (oh look there’s that word you foolishly insist has no meaning) reference structure that can span both culture.
Yes. And please, please dont take my aggressive reply as aimed at you.
If a person uses the Gregorian calendar, which I daresay includes the majority of the human race today to one extent or another, then they know this is 2011. They would also know it's 2011 AD, because that's the convention that's been adopted, to superseded the Mayan calendar, the Julian Calender, and for official purposes at least the Chinese Calendar. Like certain abbreviations such as etc, AM and PM, we use these shorthand designations even if in some cases it is long after most people have forgotten their roots, and exact meaning. So anyone familiar with the Gregorian calender would know that 200 BC is 2211 years ago.
The fact that one may use a calender based on a European estimation of the birth of Christ while changing the abbreviation, makes it no more relevant or "in common" with another culture who may not be Christian in orientation. If the United States replaced the Constitution with the Koran and Sharia, and called it "Common Law," it would still be based on the Muslim faith.
Now, if I call that structure the "Great wall of China" instead of 长城/万里长城 how am I not projecting my culture on their historic treasure? How chauvinistic would I be to refer to its length in miles? After all, over there it's the Ten Thousand Li Long Wall.
If we want to be more inclusive, then it would make sense to revise the calender altogether, and start from 0 in say 3200 BC, or whatever is estimated to be the earliest written record. Thus, we are now living in 5211. Now THAT makes sense.
By the way, the BBC itself states “The Corporation’s religion website states that it opts for the “religiously neutral” Common Era and Before Common Era, rather than Anno Domini (the year of Our Lord) and Before Christ” so you’re reasoning does not apply to this decision.
‘State sponsored’? No. ‘Extremely left wing’? Try that one on a British socialist!
I don’t give a crap why the BBC is doing it, I’m explaining why BCE and CE have existed for 400 years, most of which were before there ever was a BBC. The fact remains that it’s more culturally neutral and a smarter way to discuss the time frame of events in a culture that didn’t even know who Christ was when the events occurred. Really you accidentally provide exactly the reason for it, AD is “year of our Lord”, which wasn’t necessarily their Lord. And it’s the common era because the archeologists, which are the people that do all this discussing, decided it was the common era.
Actually, you're not up on the latest findings. The idea that Jesus could NOT of been "born any later than 4 BC(E)"(sic) is based on the date of Herod the Great's death supposedly being in 4 BC. Recent scholarship though has shown that it is quite possible that Herod may well have died in 1 BC instead.
Astrological signs too (described in the book of Revelation--and presumably studied by the Magi of Matthew 2) line up with a 1 or 2 BC birth of Jesus as well.
That would put Jesus' birth within a year or so--or possibly even spot on--of the actual date calculated by Dionysius...
Actually the point from which we date our Calendar is the province of everyone—not just an elite group of archeologists—no matter how many random letters they put after their names.
There’s no reason that the field of archeology should determine what we call the calendar—since EVERYONE relies on the calendar for every date and time we set.
Just as the spelling and definitions of the original Oxford dictionary were intended to be as democratic as possible—reflecting actual spelling and usage, and not what some elite commission says SHOULD be the spelling and usage (e.g. as in French and German...) so too the archeologists and others academics blinded by Science... are wildly outnumbered by those of us that prefer to be honest with our calender—dated from a rough estimate of the birth of Christ—and choose to use BC and AD.
This is the Calendar of the Christian world...and those who don’t like it, should use some other calendar and not misname ours!
So you actually teach that Dionysius Exiguus created the current system?
Balderdash.
Anno Domini means year of Our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, are you asserting that Dionysius wasn’t a Christian?
He changed it because he was tired of using the dates from Diocletian.
I daresay that the English would object to calling “Sharia” Common Law. Common Law means the English system of law and always shall.
Just as AD and BC stand for Anno Domini and Before Christ, just as they always have, no matter what revisionists would have us believe.
I suppose you would cheer when we use Muhammed’s birthday instead.
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