What is a CE or a BCE? OK-- I know but its stupid

I was conducting intense research on the history of cell phones in the Zhou dynasty, and came across the CE BCE references.

It reminded me of Solzhenitsyn's observation that to destroy a people you must first sever their roots.

I can only hope that this is a fad that will go the way of Leif Garrett. Because the profound stupidity of it all makes my eyes hurt when I encounter it.

And so, I will read it as "Christian Era" and "Before Christian Era", but never use it because that would be embarrassing.

BCE Before Common Era
CE Common Era.

The dividing line is the birth of Jesus.

Originally Posted by Lighthouse

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I was conducting intense research on the history of cell phones in the Zhou dynasty, and came across the CE BCE references.

Wait... what?

Originally Posted by mack11211

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BCE Before Common Era
CE Common Era.

The dividing line is the birth of Jesus.

not true

dividing line is ad 0

birth of jesus was either 4 bc or 6 ad

Man... Google.

anyone know: what was the commonly accepted counting method before the CE calendar and what was it up to?

Generally it depended on the Kingdom/Empire etc.

Romans counted from the founding of Rome, Hebrews from a year before the Earth was formed according to Genesis, etc. etc.

CE = current events subforum at Styleforum.
BCE = business, careers and education subforum at Styleforum.

Any other use of our acronyms are just pathetic attempts by others to bite our steez.

Originally Posted by Lighthouse

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I was conducting intense research on the history of cell phones in the Zhou dynasty, and came across the CE BCE references.
But there where no cellphones during the Zhou Dynasty, your 'intense research' should have told you that. They didn't arrive until the Song Dynasty.

CE = Current Events, aka, the period before you venture into the CE forum.
BCE = Butthurt Current Events, aka, the period after you start posting in the CE forum.

Originally Posted by unjung

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Man... Google.

Read the title. OK - I know.

But its stupid.

Originally Posted by edmorel

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CE = Current Events, aka, the period before you venture into the CE forum.
BCE = Butthurt Current Events, aka, the period after you start posting in the CE forum.

Word!

Originally Posted by Master-Classter

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anyone know: what was the commonly accepted counting method before the CE calendar and what was it up to?

Most ancient societies counted years based on their current monarch ("The 6th year of the reign of King Whassisname"). Christians came to view Jesus as the ulimate source of monarchal power, so at some point (400-500 years later) it became logical within that context to count time according to his "reign."

So you had time begin to be measured as "The Year of Our Lord ("Anno Domini" in Latin) 457" or whatever. That required someone to do the research on how many years it had been since the birth of Jesus. Problem was the guy (a monk whose name I've forgotten) got the calculations wrong and the calendar got set about 4-6 years off the actual birth of Jesus. By the time anyone figured out that it was wrong, things were too entrenched to change it, so everyone just said, "screw it."

In the interim, with the increase in communications internationally and the growth of more worldwide economic systems, etc. the system of measuring time got adopted to one degree or another almost worldwide, though some countries retain their own systems for some purposes. In more recent times, folks got uncomfortable with the world-wide calendar pointing to a date involving a religion that only a minority fraction of the world ascribed to. But again, the system was too entrenched to change, so they decided to just change the name instead. "AD" become politically incorrect (despite the fact that historically Christians invented the system that nearly everyone else adopted) and was changed to "CE" or "Common Era" to make it more palatable to non-Christians.

At my bastion of liberal learning, I've been docked entire letter grades for using "BC" and "AD"

Originally Posted by MikeDT

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But there where no cellphones during the Zhou Dynasty, your 'intense research' should have told you that. They didn't arrive until the Song Dynasty.

Have you not seen the time travel thread? http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=222018

JMRouse went back to the Zhou Dynasty and invented cell phones back then.

Originally Posted by geoffmartin17

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At my bastion of liberal learning, I've been docked entire letter grades for using "BC" and "AD"

Is this true? I find it hard to accept a professor dropping you a whole letter grade for using something that, while not politically correct, is still in use by most people.