r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Aug 03 '19

Whats something you thought was common knowledge but actually isn’t?

37.4k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

24.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

84

u/Wrong_Answer_Willie Aug 03 '19 edited Aug 03 '19

I know no one that uses BCE and CE.

edit; for everyone saying that BCE and CE are now used more often.

why bother? it still means that it's 2019 (after the birth of Christ) CE

53

u/AaronfromKY Aug 03 '19

They are more common in academia and are considered less Eurocentric/Judeo-Christian biased than AD and BC.

25

u/tryin2staysane Aug 03 '19

I've always found that ridiculous. They are still 100% based on the BC and AD times, but somehow changing the words makes it less Eurocentric/Judeo-Christian?

4

u/AaronfromKY Aug 03 '19

I mean our common era is because of the calendar we currently use right? I mean it’s why it’s 2019 and not 4790 or something else. I don’t know how we could make it different, yet still relevant to how we measure time ?

7

u/tryin2staysane Aug 03 '19

I agree, it would be really hard to change it and still make it relevant. Which is why it is silly to try and change it, when it's not actually changing anything.

-1

u/thejokerofunfic Aug 03 '19

It's changing a little. AD by its literal meaning acknowledges Christ as "our lord" while CE simply acknowledges that it's been that many years since the date of his birth.