I just noticed that historians switched from BC to BCE for ancient time periods, what was the reason for this?

Question

BC - before christ to BCE - Before Christian Era. Was it political or factual?

Most everyone has given me the correct explanation of BCE so It's hard to chose the best one.

Answer 1

it was to be politically correct - it stands for Before Common Era.

Answer 2

BC stands for Before Christ, whereas BCE stands for Before Common Era. Because of different religious beliefs and groups opposing the use of a single religion as the standard way of measurement, historians have replaced the use of BC to BCE

Answer 3

Common Era

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCE

Answer 4

BCE = Before Current Era
CE = Current Era

First, no one is entirely sure when Yeshua of Nazareth was born. Astronomy would indicate, based on passages of the Bible, that Yeshua was born no ealier than 12 BCE and no later than 4 BCE. So 'BeforeChrist' and 'Anno Domini' (after christ) is known to be incorrect.

Second, to divide time based on a purely christian standard is rather disturbingly culturally insensitive, considering that time line is used pretty much everywhere in the world now for anything academic.

Given light of the factual error and cultural insensitivity, many social scientists began using BCE & CE, using the current 1BC/1AD split as its epoch.

Answer 5

Both. BCE begins before what used to be 0 BC. Jesus of Nazareth was not born until 4 BC, so there is a factual discontinuity.

Also, there are billions of people who do not believe in Christ, so it isn't exactly fair to refer to their history (no, history does not only belong to Christians) with a biased term.

However, I think BC is just easier to write and say.

Answer 6

Before current era is more pc. (politically correct)

I would also just like to ask the USA (who seem to have a big problem with everything PC) to take a moment to reflect on what the world would be like if we continued to use the same old words for everything... like black people, women, non-christians, the elderly, learning disabled, Asians etc... would anyone ever be liberated or educated? Most of the words we used to describe these people were misnomers in the first place...

If you want to Go really PC.... it should actually be PP - Politically Polite (because you shouldn't assume that your view is the correct one)

Answer 7

BCE = Before Common Era. Seems for religious neutrality reasons (although, of course, the 'common era' is still based upon the same timetable of Christianity's birth of Jesus which makes it a bit odd with respect to trying to achieve neutrality; I understand the intention but the same timetable is used!)

Answer 8

Because BC means before christ and not everybody beileves in christianity and BCE means before common era.

Answer 9

I collect ancient coins and do not use the new system, a lot of us don't, for it came to be from the political correct liberal college professors who teach history and related subjects. Just as I collect Chinese cash coins and use the old system for reading the characters. It is Peking not Beijing to me. I have collect coins for over 46 years and will not change now, for a bunch of people who want to change history, to the way they see it, not as it was. BCE means before current era, that way there is no religion involved. It goes to prove there are more horses asses, than there are horses. Most of the extra ones teach are young. They call it higher education, amazing is it not!

Answer 10

Generally political. Politically correct actually. It is now Before Common Era and Common Era. Means the exact same thing. The change doesn't really mean anything, just makes us one big non offensive family.

Answer 11

The main reason is the same reason why the cross in San Diego's Veteran memorial is being taken down and the attack on the rest of Christianity is taking place.
The "sensitive crowd" feels that having A.D. (anno domini) which means "the year of our Lord" and B.C. "Before Christ" might offend people of other religions or those who have no religion.

So they (theologians and politically correct organizations) proposed the neutral sterile notation to refer to calendar dates.

BCE (before common era) has replaced BC and CE (common era) has replaced AD.

Not everyone likes it as you might know by now.

Nations before you know it will loose identity as we head toward the generic blurr.