B.c./a.d./?

[Queso]

Our time is based upon the death of somebody who claimed he was the son of god.

there was before christ, then there was after his death.

 

i'm guessing 0 was the relative time he was alive? or what exactly goes in the middle?

 

anyways...i'm just a bit disgusted i have to live by that.

what do you guys think?:

will religion suppress a bit (but of course never fully die off)

will it remain the way it is now?

or will it gain strength and popularity?

 

if it suppresses, i say some revolutionist should push for a new era of time...i would definitely be on their side.

who established the timeline in the first place?

[Turtle]

___The simple fact remains that in order for a calendar to have any meaning, an arbitrary starting point is necessary. Astronomers don't use BC, AD, but rather Julian Time. They picked an arbitrary date, (4 thousand something BC) & count the days since then. Hours & minutes are expressed in decimal fractions of days.

___The Humanities have tried to ameleiorate the religous context by renaming the start point B.C.E. (Before the Common Era). This all plays very much to the thread on symantics. Call it what you like, but you must call it something. :)

[bumab]

Our time is based upon the death of somebody who claimed he was the son of god.

there was before christ, then there was after his death.

 

It's not actually After Death, it's Annoe Domani (or something like that), which is latin. Stands for after his birth.

 

Do you have a better starting point? It needs something!

[Queso]

hm.

i'm beginning to wonder what was wrong with my elementary teachers, i swear they told me it was after death, or maybe it was just something i just assumed?? who knows, who cares now i know what it really is.

i don't have a better starting point! thanks for all the information my thoughts have been vitally transformed :)

[IrishEyes]

Orb,

I know you already got your answer, but check out this link if you're interested in a bit more. BC/AD question

 

bumab was right, AD is actually Latin for Anno Domino, or "in the year of the Lord". It refers to any time after the birth of Jesus.

 

Anyhow, many people have that question, and many people incorrectly assume that AD means 'after death'. I wondered the same thing, after doing the math and trying to figure out how BC was before His birth, then He lived for 33 years, then AD was after his death. What happened to those 33 years? Were they not counted? Well, it wasn't until my French teacher in high school explained what they meant that I finally got it. Up until that time, I also had teachers tell me the "before Christ, after death" thing. Sad state the education system is in, eh?

[Queso]

definitely. my old high school...we couldn't even afford paper.

[BEAKER]

"...Julian days simply enumerate the days and fraction which have elapsed since the start of the Julian era, which is defined as beginning at noon on Monday, 1st January of year 4713 B.C.E. in the Julian calendar. This date is defined in terms of a cycle of years, but has the additional advantage that all known historical astronomical observations bear positive Julian day numbers, and periods can be determined and events extrapolated by simple addition and subtraction. Julian dates are a tad eccentric in starting at noon, but then so are astronomers (and systems programmers!)..."

 

http://www.calendarhome.com/converter/julian.html

 

Pretty close to the time the Bible declares that God created the heaven and the earth.

[kaelcarp]

Funny, there's this atheist activist I know who is trying to start a movement to have the day a man set foot on the moon be day 1 of year 0 and base the year naming on that, making this the year 35.

[C1ay]

Our time is based upon the death of somebody who claimed he was the son of god.

there was before christ, then there was after his death.

 

i'm guessing 0 was the relative time he was alive? or what exactly goes in the middle?

 

anyways...i'm just a bit disgusted i have to live by that.

what do you guys think?

 

Actually the date think doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is that we don't respect the 14th amendment and all of that equal treatment thing a little more. I mean if Christmas is going to be a national holiday and all of the federal employees are going to be off then I think we ought to treat all of the other religions the same. Let's all take off for the holidays of the jewish, the muslims, the hindi, buddhists and taoists and all of the other faiths :) Whatcha think?

[kaelcarp]

Actually the date think doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is that we don't respect the 14th amendment and all of that equal treatment thing a little more. I mean if Christmas is going to be a national holiday and all of the federal employees are going to be off then I think we ought to treat all of the other religions the same. Let's all take off for the holidays of the jewish, the muslims, the hindi, buddhists and taoists and all of the other faiths :) Whatcha think?

I think it's on the borderline.

 

For one, all private businesses are free to consider Christamas a holiday or not. I know someone who had to work Christmas and didn't get paid extra for it.

 

For another, they try to equalize it by giving people "floating" holidays sometimes.

 

I don't know how government institutions handle it, but I'd imagine that they use the whole "floating holiday" thing for compensation.

[Biochemist]

I don't know how government institutions handle it, but I'd imagine that they use the whole "floating holiday" thing for compensation.

I don't think there is anything intrinsically spiritual about the federal (or state) holiday schedule. The Christmas holiday is merely a US tradition (shared by some other countries), with a circumstantial/tangential connection to Christianity.

[IrishEyes]

My husband is a contractor at a government agency, and they have the following holidays in 2005:

(taken from the OPM website http://www.opm.gov/fedhol/2005.asp )

 

Federal law (5 U.S.C. 6103) establishes the following public holidays for Federal employees. Please note that most Federal employees work on a Monday through Friday schedule. For these employees, when a holiday falls on a nonworkday -- Saturday or Sunday -- the holiday usually is observed on Monday (if the holiday falls on Sunday) or Friday (if the holiday falls on Saturday).

 

Friday, December 31, 2004 * New Year's Day

Monday, January 17 Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday, February 21 Washington's Birthday

Monday, May 30 Memorial Day

Monday, July 4 Independence Day

Monday, September 5 Labor Day

Monday, October 10 Columbus Day

Friday, November 11 Veterans Day

Thursday, November 24 Thanksgiving Day

Monday, December 26 ** Christmas Day

 

* January 1, 2005 (the legal public holiday for New Years Day) falls on a Saturday. For most Federal employees, Friday, December 31, 2004, will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. It does not matter that December 31, 2004 is in the prior calendar year. (See 5 U.S.C. 6103(:).)

 

Inauguration Day, January 20, 2005, falls on a Thursday. An employee who works in the District of Columbia, Montgomery or Prince George's Counties in Maryland, Arlington or Fairfax Counties in Virginia, or the cities of Alexandria or Falls Church in Virginia, and who is regularly scheduled to perform non-overtime work on Inauguration Day, is entitled to a holiday. There is no in-lieu-of holiday for employees who are not regularly scheduled to work on Inauguration Day.

 

This holiday is designated as "Washington's Birthday" in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.

 

** December 25, 2005, ( the legal public holiday for Christmas Day) falls on a Sunday. For most Federal employees, Monday, December 26, will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. (See Executive Order 11582 of February 11, 1971.)

 

Christmas is the only religious day that is observed as a federal holiday, that I can see. There are many birthdays of dead men that rank federal holidays, but no women, and no other religious days - from any religion. I think you may be right about it being more of a tradition than an observance of a religious day though. If it were observed due to its religious conotations, and because it was a Christian Holy day, then Easter would likely be observed as well. However, Easter is not observed federally. Some states do count Easter as a holiday, and most state education systems use Easter as the basis for spring break, thus killing two birds with one stone.

 

Thanks to all of you for your repsonses. It's been very interesting to read this!!

[infamous]

Actually the date think doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is that we don't respect the 14th amendment and all of that equal treatment thing a little more. I mean if Christmas is going to be a national holiday and all of the federal employees are going to be off then I think we ought to treat all of the other religions the same. Let's all take off for the holidays of the jewish, the muslims, the hindi, buddhists and taoists and all of the other faiths :) Whatcha think?

Don't sound like we'll be getting very much work done, does it?????

 

But then I'm retired and every day is a holiday, and I'm lovin it!!!!!!

[C1ay]

...every day is a holiday, and I'm lovin it!!!!!!

 

That's the point :)

[infamous]

That's the point :)

 

OK Lets bring it before the legislature, maybe we'll get something done?? NOTTTT.....

[C1ay]

OK Lets bring it before the legislature, maybe we'll get something done?? NOTTTT.....

Congress is the opposite of progress...

[infamous]

Congress is the opposite of progress...

 

Thats got my vote C1ay.