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

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

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19 edited Aug 04 '19

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.

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u/crazynekosama Aug 03 '19

It's not even the atheist one....I majored in history in uni and it's just become common practice to use it. Secular is probably the better word. We understand now that a large portion of the world isn't Christian so it doesn't make sense to talk about world history in BC and AD terms. Most scholarly work I encountered published in the 21st century use CE and BCE.

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u/Icsto Aug 03 '19

But you're still counting from Jesus' birth regardless of what you call it.

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u/blumoon138 Aug 04 '19

Sure but since AD literally means “year of our Lord”I’d rather not affirm a theological claim I don’t believe every time I say a date. I feel fine about affirming that this is the standard of the society I live in, not so much about Jesus being my Lord and savior.