Why are we basing our lives using this type of calendar system? For all I care, I could call this year 4.6 billion. And why is it so important to use Christ's birth as a relevant time period? The start of common era is really a big question mark for me.
Wide shared tradition and protocol. Sure, you can use whatever ideas you want for timekeeping, but the rest of us will not know what time and date to meet you for whatever appointments you set up using those ideas. Mustn't you also concede that scientists cannot tell us what year it is since creation? They can only approximate.
Because the Christian Church was one of the most powerful and influential political entities in the Western world for centuries. Gregorian Calender
If every one just went around saying whatever year they thought it was because it matched their beliefs it would be very confusing. You might not agree with Christianity but the Gregorian Calender makes life a lot easier. How is this spirituality and philosiphy btw?
OP, do you have a problem with lunar cycles? I mean that is why we have the months we do.... or is it that you just find a problem with the BCE and CE?
In the french revolution actually they changed the calendar. (They hated christians) And they changed the week to 8 days so that people wouldn't know when it was sunday and couldn't go to church.
If you don't like it, go start a religion. Then may be they'll change the system with your birth year as the year zero. Added : In Thailand, it is now year 2553. For real man...
I loved learning about that. They just changed the calendar on everyone...that's such a bold move. There were actually 10 days a week, and at the end of the year they just plopped the extra days.
In my opinion, it doesn't seem like very many people care about anything before Jesus was born. The first hominid is dated a few million years back I think. Homo-sapians started showing up around 200,000 years ago. But all we really care about is the past 2,000 years.. aint that something.
You guys are right. I guess I was meaning to say that the general population has a lack of knowledge about our deepest roots as human beings.
That's definitely true. Your average person does not care about much that happened more than 50 years ago. My feelings on the calendar: its arbitrary. No matter where you start you have to start somewhere...there's no true year zero, so it really doesn't matter at all. At this point, in Western culture, Christianity is the dominant force, and was even more so in the past. At this point it so ingrained into our culture that the only thing that would change it would be an imposed change such as the one in the French Revolution. Maybe someone will take control of the world and be a big jerk and change it on us.