Why do scientists use BC and AD for years though most don't beleive in things dealin with Jesus Christ?

Question

I have read several articles and other things that talk about the past, present, and future in terms of years. If the vast majority of scientists don't believe that God created the universe why would they believe in Jesus?

If BC means before christ and AD means after death why use them if their beliefs lead elseware? I understand that these acronyms have been used for a long time. With that being said it would be hard to change the worlds view on this.

So who first thought of using BC/AD as a way to define years? Could this person have been religious and among the community it took hold? I am religious and so I am just curious.

Why wouldn't time just begin and continue. It starts and then it stops on a year, and from then on is called AD. So After death, Wow! Someone must have been important to consider all years from the point of his death to AD. The points before that are also noticed as the came before he did.

Anyone want to expand or speak your peace?

Hmm I havn't seen the BCE and CE thing. Can someone provide a website for this?

If this is true has it taken a hold on the mainstream population?

Answer 1

ANNO DOMINI) is the Roman expression for: The year of the dominium of the Lord. This is to say that the "Lord" as a title was given to the highest office of the Roman Empire. At that time this was Julius Caesar and it related to any year he was in office.

There was a gate in Jerusalem, that had the statue of Caesar posted at the gate. It was expected that the Jews come into the city through that gate and pay their respect to the statue as their Lord and Master. After all, the Romans occupied the territory at that time, and also ruled over the Jews. The Jews avoided that gate like the plague, because they would have not been able to keep the commandment: 'Thou shall not worship other Idols..' The Christians did not have this problem.

Christianity really was promoted in Greece and spread from there. Remember that the world as it was known AT THAT TIME, was mainly ruled by Julius Caesar, and anything that was Roman was also in fashion. That is why the ANNO DOMINI was simply transferred to the God of the Christians by the Christians of that time as THEIR Lord.

Now, "B.C." stands for any year "BEFORE CAESAR". This is to say the Romans could not care less what came BEFORE CAESAR, and remember, the Romans ruled! Again, Christianity saw this as a golden opportunity to make this one of their own significance, by simply changing it to "Before Christ." Since the Greek word for king is "Christos", it fit. The Roman word REX or the Hebrew word MELEG would not have worked.

At that time the Christian movement was a small and insignificant sect. No one can seriously believe that the Roman Empire would have fixed something as important as the accounting of historic time and events to the Christian movement, especially if it was centered around a Jew to whom the Greek title of king was assigned, and whom they had crucified for rebellion against their own.

I think you would have to go to the library and look up works about Roman periods, especially under Julius Caesar. It was he who was determined to be worshiped as IDOL (GOD) by all nations of his time, especially those nations that he had conquered, and where his troops occupied the land. His role was not simply to rule, but to DOMINATE, hence DOMINI, and not simply a number of some sort of keeping track of time. Anything B.C (Before Caesar) did not matter to him one way or another. It was also coined to play down the achievements of Alexander the Great, (356-323 B.C) who was still in the people's mind at that time.

Answer 2

Whether they use BC/AD, or BCE/CE, scientists have to use the same calendar everyone else does. Belief in God has nothing to do with it.

Also, there seems to be this widespread belief that being a scientist means you're an automatic atheist. Most scientists profess some sort of religion, and many may be devout. What most scientists do however, is try to fit the Bible into the observed facts of the world and the universe, and don't take the Bible as the literal truth.

Einstein, to use one of the most famous scientists, was a fairly religious Jew his entire life, and never thought that his discoveries in anyway negated the existence of God. One of Einstein's biggest objections to Quantum Mechanics was his claim that "God does not play dice with the universe".

Note that Jews certainly believe in God, and many believe Jesus existed, but as a rabbi or teacher, not as the Messiah or the son of God. They also use BCE/CE since they will not call the time they are living "the year of our Lord". Some countries, most notably China, do this as well.

The arbitrary division of BC/AD was developed by a monk in 6th century Rome (we can pretty safely assume he was religious), and since Christianity was long the dominant force in Europe and then the world, their calendar has become the standard.

Later, in 1582, pope Gregory XIII decreed the current form of the calendar, known as the Gregorian system, with its fairly accurate system of leap years. The Gregorian calendar also removed 10 days from the year to push Easter back into early spring. The new calendar was eventually adopted all over the world, but some countries took hundreds of years to do it. If you check out the birthdates of many of the key figures of the American Revolution (Washington, Jefferson), next to their birthdates you'll sometimes see the notation "o.s", meaning "old style". Britain, and America, did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752, so dates prior to that have to be noted as to which calendar on they're being reckoned.

Answer 3

well, the general population tends to use BC/AD just out of habit.

BC/AD is also easier to say than BCE/CE.

However, most students in school are learning to use BCE (before common era) and CE (common era). History textbooks use this new system.

by the way. AD stands for Anno Domini (year of our Lord) and the person who designed this system of counting the years probably did not do so because he thought Time literally stopped for J. Christ. People merely needed a convenient way to measure the passage of the years. According to Wikipedia, the person was indeed religious--he was a monk named Dionysius Exiguus. You can read more about this if you click on the link below.

Answer 4

The Roman calendar uses BC and AD, because the emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion, as opposed to the previous mishmash of various pagan beliefs. We have continued to use it because it makes no sense to change so much for no reason. A few ideology filled pseudo scientists have decided that beliefs matter more than convinience, and so have started to use CE and BCE, Common Era and Before the Common Era.
We use BC, (or CE) because we need to be able to measure back a huge amount of time, but don't have any kind of "year one" when we know what happened, and how to date things. So BC runs backwards, so we can measure things infinitely back.

Answer 5

It has also to do with the Gregorian Calendar. (AD = Anno Domini)

The numbering of years per the Christian era is currently dominant in many places around the world in both commercial and scientific use. For decades it was the global standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union. This was due to the abundance of Christianity in the Western world, the great influence of the Western world on science, technology and commerce, as well as the fact that the solar Gregorian calendar has for a long time been considered to be astronomically correct.

Answer 6

Most scientists do believe that the man Jesus lived 2000 years ago, and many of them are also Christians who believe he was the son of God, but these two beliefs are not the same thing. However, it is the politicians and lobby groups who would argue against using a religious basis for the calendar, not the scientists. Any calendar is OK for science, as long as most people agree to use the same one.

Answer 7

Just about all historians and scientists believe in Christ, just as they believe in Caesar, Muhammad, Columbus, and any other historical person.
Believing a peson existed back in history does not make him a God. BC means before Christ. He was a man who lived during the Roman days and was selected as the one who the calender would be oriented to.
They could have chosen Julius or Augustus, or anyone else just as well.
Today is Thursday, but not many scientists believe Thor is that great of a God.

Answer 8

I disagree with your assumption that the "vast majority" of scientists don't believe in God. I am a scientist and work in a building full of scientists, and most of the people I work with go to church every sunday! Everybody else here has done an excellent job explaining Anno Domini and BCE/CE, so I won't rehash it, but I did want to register an objection to your starting assumptions.

Answer 9

I am Jewish and in Jew school we always used the Terms CE and BCE common Era and Before common era just so we dont refer to Jesus's death as the focal point of time. It would be far to inconveinient to come up with a different dating system than the rest of the world

Answer 10

Wikipedia has great information about calendar year numbering systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_era

Basically a scientist will be happy to use any numbering system that works. Any numbering system based on a solar year is isomorphic to any other -- i.e., one is just as good as another.

Because the objective of scientists is to understand things and to help others understand, whatever numbering system a person is accustomed to is a good one to use when communicating with that person. The Gregorian calendar is widely used and easily understood.

BTW, AD means "Anno Domini" -- which my dictionary translates as "in the Christian era".