Religion or Reality

The Word of God... Continued?

"If you dress a new something in old habits, it's easier for the public to accept it."

Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit 

Christianity

Christians may rely heavily on the Tanakh, which, as I mentioned earlier they nicknamed the Old Testament, but they have their own text as well to detail the elements of their faith: The New Testament

This text the second, smaller section of the Christian Bible and completes the scripture of their faith. It is comprised of the four gospels, the epistles of the apostles, and ends with Revelations, a book that depicts the end of the world in a highly coded language. Although the four gospels contain the ministry of Jesus, the epistles of Paul make up the bulk of the New Testament. Since the entirety of Christianity took place in CE, we know more about when the New Testament was canonized. Before we go into that, however, I think it's important to discuss our calendar system, since Christianity played a large part in its construction. 

I'm writing this in the year 2017. This means that the Earth has traveled around the sun 2017 times since we started counting.You may ask: "who decided to start this counting?" Historically, the Julian calendar, named after Julius Caesar, was the system in place. But in 1582, the Catholics decided to step in with their own version of things.The Gregorian Calendar, introduced by and named after Pope Gregory XIII, turned the world on its axis – changing a number of established dates, including the starting point of our time. This new starting point marked the birth of a man named Jesus. Special designations were implemented to separate the time before Christ (labeled BC), versus the time after Christ, (labeled AD [anno domini: the year of our Lord]). So twenty years before Christ was born is labeled 20 BC, while 20 years after Christ was born is labeled AD 20.

If these are the correct designations then I'm sure you are wondering why I have been using the labels BCE and CE. 

There are actually two reasons for this, one of which is ridiculous while the other is quite valid. Let's talk about the ridiculous one first. 

We live in an age where people are desperate to cling to anything to which they can take offense. We can't say "anchorman" because some women think it's sexist. We can't say "black man" because some people think it's better to say "African-American" (which is foolish because black people can live in other countries aside from America and can originate from other continents aside from Africa). And now, we can't even say BC without some non-Christian getting offended and claiming that Christianity is being pushed onto them. So instead, we have the terms BCE (before common era) and CE (common era). By the way, what day is it? For me, it's a lovely Thursday afternoon in March. I sure hope I didn't offend anyone with that sentence. 

Confused? 

You should be. Allow me to elaborate.

The name for Thursday has its roots in the religion of the Norse, while March can be traced back to the Romans. Thursday is literally a rendering of the original name for the day, Thor's day, the day to honor the Norse god. March is named to honor the Roman god, Mars. Fun Fact: July was named after Julius Ceasar. Anyways, nobody seems to have a problem using these terms, yet they throw a fit if you tell them "Merry Christmas" (sidenote: I have my own beef with that holiday, but it has more to do with its origins of burning children rather than having the name "Christ" in it).

However, that is not the real reason I choose to designate the years with BCE and CE rather than BC and AD, because I refuse to pander to the hypocrites who proudly say Thursday while refusing to say Christmas. No, the real reason I use BCE and CE is because the guy who started counting years at the birth of Jesus was wrong, which makes the original labels incorrect.