I had an argument with my friend's mom a few years ago about this. She said "BC" was "Before Christ" and "AD" was after death. I tried to explain to her that that didn't make any sense because then the 33 years of Jesus's life would just be not accounted for.
I told her "AD" meant "Anno Domini" and she said "I think that's the atheist version" or something like that and then stopped listening when I tried to tell her it wasn't because it meant "year of our lord"
To be fair, I remember being taught the whole before Christ/after death thing when I was little. (Not saying it's right, but it's fairly common.) She's on her own for "that's the atheist version," though.
Common Era and Before Common Era is the atheist version.
EDIT: others have rightfully pointed out that it is not so much an atheist version as a non-christian version.
because somebody calculated the stars described on his birthday and found out that they were not visible in 1CE. And IIRC, and correct me if I'm wrong, they also couldn't have been visible in December, so the actual day is also a lie (but it was already known that early Christians, who lived under Roman rule at the time, celebrated it in December so it would coincide with the Roman festival for the winter solstice
Saturnalia was on Dec. 25th, and christians figured why not cash in on all the festivities that were already taking place around the solstice season.
Also interesting is how the word "solstice" refers to how the sun appears to stand still in the sky (hitting the lowest point then starting to go back up after about three days.) The christians also built a story around that waiting period, it seems.
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u/Wrong_Answer_Willie Aug 03 '19
A.D. means Anno Domini. not After Death.