AD or CE

One thing that used to bother me is the increasing proliferation of the abbrevations CE and BCE in reference to historical dates. If you aren’t aware, CE is supposed to stand for “Common Era” and BCE for “Before the Common Era.” They were created and pushed to replaced the Christian terms AD (“Anno Domini” – “Year of Our Lord”) and BC (“Before Christ”). To me, this is just another of the frequent examples of the hatred this modern society of ours has towards one of its very own foundations, Christianity. AD and BC have been in widespread use for almost sixteen centuries; CE and BCE for only a couple of decades.

I reject this secular notation, this attempt to tear down yet another pillar of what had made our western civilization great. It used to bug me, but it doesn’t anymore.

Why not? Well, I read CE instead as the “Christian Era” and BCE as “Before the Christian Era.” Oh, and it’s always fun to ask the enthusiastic secular user of CE and BCE just what event started the “common era” and see him struggle as he decides how to answer, or, more likely, not answer, that question.