It has recently been reported in the newspaper that the second largest on-line encycolpedia in Norway, den Store Norsklexicon, has changed all dates labelled AD or BC to Before or After our current calender's time.
To use AD or BC could be construed as basing history on a purely christian/puritan viewpoint.
It is an interesting point, but I am not sure whether before or after 'our' current time works either. Where does that leave Bhuddists or Shinto believers? Is their 'time' not good enough for 'our' time. It still bases the reckoning of time on the Christian idea of pre and post the Christian Era.
Apparently it was a monk in the 6th century, Dionysius Exigius who first came up with the idea of using Christ's birth as the beginning of a new era, and dating historical events from that time. Year 0, however, does not exist, and Jesus was supposedly born during the reign of King Herod who died in 4 BC, which is really confusing! However, since it was the monastery's and monks who had the time and education to record historical events, everything is written from the viewpoint of the new (Christian) era as a dating benchmark.
Amazing the conundrums we set ourselves to be so politically correct!!
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