Dating systems: BC and AD, or BCE and CE?

[Andreas Gobinius]

I do not want to disscuss, but only give you an example for comparison. I was growing up in communistic country, where history was taught without infuences of any religion... Of course the position of the Catholic Church in Poland was very strong even in this former period, but there was something significant in the usage of the dating system taught in schools and universities even. Instead of BC we were learning Before Common Era. In place of AD we used Common Era... Of course everyone knew, that the beginning of this Common Era was connected with the birth of Christ, but in such term Christ was not mentioned... Our schoolars had "clever" methods how to publish historical books containing many important arguments. It was enough to create one chapter about hypothetical "influx" of Marx, Engels and Lenin arguments into the subject... :wink: :grin: But this is another story...
Coming back to the point. We started using BC/AD in scientifical literature again from 1990 and that was the impact of english-language literature of course. That was something like another "sign of changes" in our country then...
Well, reading some posts here, I am not confused or embarassed. I notice it as another "wind of changes" in our social and geopolithical consciusness, not as one nation or citizens of one continent. Even such "small" world as this one created by enthusiasts of ancient times could not be homogeneus...
It doesn`t really matter how we name the dating system. This point said to be the moment of the birth of Christ (in spite of disscussion about propriety of the indication of this moment) should stay the border of the common/ Christian era and the period before. Just because it is the significant element of the culture, recognized all over the world. In my opinion it would be very hard to find now something more universal and acceptable for the worlds community and historians. And I would like to add, that in spite of this aspect mentioned above, connected with the history of my country, I have no affectional relation to the subject