Why does the whole world go off the Christian Calender when many in the world are not Christian?

Question

I have just been wondering this lately. It is the year 2007 A.D., which is in Christian years and the whole world goes by this. Does anyone know why?

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

We don't. It is the year 2007 C.E., not A.D.

Academically, that is. It is useful for the world's learned individuals to have a standard form of time reference (this is also why academia uses the metric system).

Of course, C.E. and B.C.E. is the exact same as A.D. and B.C. except for the names (Common Era and Before Common Era).

The "Christian Calendar" is also terribly useful as it has a reference point that easily allows dates to exist before it. The Chinese or Jewish calendars could do this, it just isn't as intuitive for them.

Note, the Roman calendar sort of did this but was not very successful. Some Romans tried to use an estimated date of the founding of Rome, but those varied and never gained acceptance. It was more usual to tell time by the census. It wasn't 37 A.D., it was "The third year before the 15th census." Not an elegant way of telling time.

Answer 3

The calendar is actually Roman, not Christian. It's called the Julian calendar, after Julius Caesar.

As for the year-counting convention, it's because civilization was spread around the world by Western societies, which were, and still are, mainly Christian.

Answer 4

Because it is easier to read than the more accurate Aztec calender.

Furthermore the only thing christian about the calender is the A.D. - B.C. thing.

Please note that all the months are named after roman gods and the christian holidays are timed to coincide with pagan events.

Answer 5

Just the way things panned out. No one culture is an island every one depends on the other. The way things turned out in the shortest sense I can think of is that Greek and Roman ideas of personal liberty combined with the Christian ideas of charity NOT excusive to christainity of COURSE However The ideas mixed,it was europe that spread and colonized the rest of the world. Europe of course owes its ideas to the far corners of the world. However they were the ones who colonized and conqeured the world.
Is it fair NO but thats the way it happened.
So we have a calandar that is christian and a western ethic that is based on liberty.

Answer 6

They don't. Some other cultures actually use other calendars. Most notably, the Muslim countries - they use a lunar calendar.

However, the European calendar is widely used in the world simply because the Europeans took over huge parts of the world and ran them as colonies for a long time. The European calendar is Christian because most European countries were christian.

Answer 7

Because most of the books people across the world follow were written by people who lived in Christian countries at one time. Why update when the old still functions? It's like buying a new car, and having new payments, when your old, paid off one, still rides without trips to the repairman.

Answer 8

Because it is a calendar that works better than other calendars that were extant over the centuries.

Also, it is like language. Those cultures that dominate or overthrow other cultures end up having their languages adopted.

Greek dominated culture in the ancient world, as well as having dominated militarily. It became the language of commerce in the then known world, even after Rome became dominant.

.

Answer 9

Because it was the Christian countries which occupied most of the rest of the world and forced Christian culture on it. Muslims use a calender dating from Mohammed, and Jews use one dating from the supposed creation of the world, but as the richest countries use the Christian one it's better for business if everyone else does too.

Answer 10

The Christian calendar was based on the Roman and Pagan calendar. The Christian holidays were added way after the fact to coincide with Pagan holidays.

Answer 11

Aside from marking AD and BC by Christ, we follow the Roman Calendar. And part of the reason that AD and BC is still in use is that is was very close to division between the Roman Republic and the Pax Romana under Augustus.