Why do we document timelines with BC (Before Christ) and AD (After Death)?

Question

Why would we use this terminology when there is still a question of whether this person ever existed?
Why would we base the entire earth timeline on one person?

Answer 1

FYI- AD is not the abbreviation for After Death when you are talking about timelines. AD actually stands for Anno Domini which in Latin means "In the year of the Lord". The year 1 is believed to be the year that Christ was born.

Answer 2

It's just the last calendar revision adopted by the Western World, a thing called the Gregorian Calendar based on research from Vatican City. They had to revise it again in 1500s. It was all an effort to make the growing seasons reflect the calendar. The java class library has whole libraries of code written to take all this in account. Other whole libraries to accomodate the Hebrew, the Chinese and the Arabic.

France rebelled against the Gregorian during their revolution and started the year off at 1, with a ten day week. That calendar didn't work out.

Indeed, I'm seeing political correctness in the American popular print media ... the sensitive write CE for Common Era and BCE for Before Common Era.

Answer 3

Good question, I looked it up on wikipedia and found some interesting info. Just wanted to share, not trying to pass this as my own thoughts.

Some non-Christians use the abbreviations AD and BC without intending to acknowledge the Christian connotation. Some people prefer the alternatives 'CE' and 'BCE', arguing that they are more neutral terms.

The designation is used to number years in the Christian Era, conventionally used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars. More descriptively, years may be also specified as 'Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi' ('In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ'). 'Anno Domini' dating was first adopted in Western Europe, during the eighth century.

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 has been the global standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union. This is due to the prevalence 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 4

Actually AD stands for Anno Domini, which means In the year of the lord in Latin. The reason it is uses AD and BC is because it was used in the Gregorian calenders that was adopted throughout Europe in the late 1500's. Pope Gregory was the man to decree the calender, and the main purpose for developing the Gregorian calender was because Easter was out of sync on the old Julian calender. Back in those days there was no questioning Christianity. The calender has been around so long and is so widely accepted in the western world it would be nearly impossible to get people to accept a new arbitrary 0 date on the calender.

Answer 5

Thousands of calendars have been used through the ages and scores are still in use. The widespread use of the Gregorian Calendar is primarily a recognition of the commercial and technical power of Western Society.

AD stands for Anno Domini (Lord's Year). CE stands for Christian Era or Common Era. Historians widely agree that Jesus of Nazareth did exist, though the details of his life are only known through the religious writings of his devote followers. Most historians believe Jesus was actually born about 4 BC.

What calendar is used is merely a matter of convention. When were you born? This can be the year 44 Creskin. All hail the coming of the new age!

PS - The day after December 31, 1 BC, was January 1, 1 AD. There was no year zero.

Answer 6

Historical texts (outside of the Bible) document that Jesus existed. Because the people in positions of power in Europe at the time the Gregorian Calendar was implented (by Pope Gregory XIII), were Christians, that calendar was adopted and accepted by a majority of the "Western" world.

I believe we use it still today out of convenience. The "information age" happened so quickly that to try to convince everyone using the Gregorian Calendar to change their calendars would be impossible. Think of the mess and confusion that would cause!

If you are offended by the calendar being based on the approximate birth of Christ, you may want to reevaluate how sensitive you are to this issue. It seems like a great waste of effort to be offended by something implemented hundreds of years ago.

Besides, Christ may not be an important figure in your life, but he did turn the world upside down in his time - enough to make a new system of counting time. And he is still a very important figure to many people in the world today.

Answer 7

Just a slight correction... AD does not mean After Death. It is Latin for Anno Domini which just mean Year of our Lord. I know it doesn't answer your question, and to be quite frankly you could spend your whole life arguing this point and you will never get anywhere.
The catholic church instituted the Gregorian calendar which started the count based on just an estimate of when they believed Jesus was born. Now whether or not you believe he existed is a solely up to you. I personally believe he existed, however people are just basing their believes on estimates and what others have told them to believe. People don't question what they have been told and just follow blindly.

Answer 8

Like someone else said you need to have some type of reference point. It makes it easier to comprehend how long ago things happened in history. The rise of Christianity seems to be a decent enough point of reference since it was a significant event that represented a change in the course of history. In addition most of the people who were making up the rules and making such decisions, were in fact Christians.

And for clarification, AD does not mean "After Death," it means "Anno Domini" which is latin for "the year of our lord," which simply refers to any year after the time of "Christ."
Also, many people now use "BC" to mean "Before the Christian Era" meaning before the rise of Christianity. In fact, in some literature, you will see it abbreviated as "BCE."

Answer 9

If you have a calendar, you have to start counting somewhere. It's just an arbitrary point in time. Besides, even Christian scholars now believe that Jesus' birth was probably in what we would call 5 or 6 AD on the modern calendar.

Also, A.D. stands for anno domini, not after death.

Answer 10

Because the Western world uses the Gregorian Calendar, which was originated by Gregorian Monks - Christians.

If you prefer, you could use one of several other calendars in existence today, but chances are pretty good that if you told someone on the street that today was 8/12/3543, you'd get a blank stare.