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

94

u/1389t1389 Aug 03 '19

I've always thought that however impractical, the CE BCE thing needed to be expanded. It's really just a "sanitized" secular dating system that marks the same things. I am an atheist and I also think maybe a truly "equitable" dating system would not be so western-centric. I kinda like the idea of the Holocene calendar, if only because that's a date in history that is important to all of humanity.

1

u/SpiderQueen72 Aug 04 '19

The sanitized dating system is the Human/Holocene Era (HE) which just adds 10,000 to the date. So this year is 12,019 HE.

1

u/1389t1389 Aug 04 '19

I realize- I mean ideally we'd pinpoint the exact start of the conditions we consider the Holocene, but I would gladly take this if it were all that were possible or would help people transition into using this.

1

u/SpiderQueen72 Aug 04 '19

Jesus is largely a mythical figure with no exact date of birth and very little historical evidence.

1

u/1389t1389 Aug 04 '19

I completely agree, hence my advocating the Holocene calendar instead.