[NC28203]

>>>Likewise, Chinese, Israelis, Indians, Japanese, et. al., used the AD/BC terminology for many years until the liberals in academia came up with the CE/BCE substitute.

The early Christians used the Jewish calendar for many years before setting up this AD/BC terminology. By your reasoning shouldn't we be using the Jewish calendar?

[Wallace T.]

If the Jewish calendar had remained in place, then there would be no problem in using it. The fact is that our calendar is Roman in origin, not Christian, except for the AD/BC divide. Even the days of the week are Germanic interpretations of the original Roman terms, for example Monday (moon-day) is a Germanized version of what the French call lundi and the Romans dies luna. Since the Romans ruled such a large territory, ranging from Scotland to Iraq and from the Netherlands to the Sudan at its peak, it is natural that the Roman calendar became the dominant one. The years were then divided at what we call 753 BC, the year Rome was founded, ab urbe condita. Since the Christian Church was the dominant social institution in most of Europe following the fall of Rome, it is understandable that the dividing line would shift from the founding of Rome to the year, 1 AD, churchmen believed was that of Christ's birth.

As Britain, Spain, France, and other European powers expanded globally after 1492, the European calendar became the one universally accepted.

[ZULU]

That's a good point.