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

[M. Caecilius]

The more philosophical minded though could object that the term Common Era makes christianity really universal.

This is pretty much the reason I voted AD/BC. Calling something "Common Era" while still basing year 1 on the birth of Christ (however wrongly dated!) doesn't seem to me to be changing much. I emphatically do not want to accuse people who use it of equating "Christian" with "Common/Universal", nor do I want to plead a case for imposing political correctness everywhere. To me, it simply seems to be a case of "a rose by any other name...".

Also, to carry the argument to its probably absurd extreme: is forcing everyone to use the Julian year over the Chinese, Muslim, Jewish years (all of which are shorter as far as I know), or even the pre-Julian Roman year (which tends towards confusing variety of length) for Republican dates not "politically incorrect", "a sign of Western imperialism", or whatever catchphrase is currently popular anyway? So even a randomly chosen starting date would be "Western" as long as Julian years are used. Using a different one would in turn probably offend the "westerners".

I'm not sure whether we can find a neutral answer to this. So overall, it is my personal preference to stay with tradition, if not with any feeling for or against a particular faith.