Use of
"Common Era" (CE) and "Before Common Era" (BCE) in place of
"Anno Domini" (AD) and "Before Christ" (BC) is:
- Paranoid. One
doesn't hear theists griping over the fact that the days of the week take their names from pagan astrology.
Christians understand that these days received their names in heathen
times, but that this system has become conventionalized, and that there is
therefore no need to change it; the neo-pagans ought to show similar equanimity
over the conventionalized naming of the Christian Era.
- Dishonest. What's common about the "Common
Era?" I could have a
little respect (though only a little) for the CE-&-BCE crowd if
they had found a date that marked a watershed in the history of every
civilization, at which a true "common era" could be said to have
commenced; but, of course, they didn't do this. Instead they merely appropriated the
Christian Era and renamed it, as if by playing word games they could deny what
they evidently consider to be the traumatic (see above) reality that this
chronology begins with the birth of the Savior.
