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

[Joe_71]

If one believes that there is no deity, since it cannot be proven to be true (as any other faith cannot be proven to be true) then it means that it is a belief. I don't see why if someones believes that there is one or many god/gods, it is considered a belief, while if somenone else believes that there are no deity/ies, it is not a belief. Putting forward the proposition/premise of the non-existence of deity/deities, as being true, looks like a belief to me..

It depends how you define atheism really. To any atheists out there, read the following statements and see which ond defines you best...

A) I know there is no god, therefore I am atheist.
B) I cannot answer the question of god's existence as, however unlikely I feel it is, I cannot prove it one way or another. I do however, reject the claims made by theists who assert that there definately is a god, as the evidence they put forward is, to me, unconvincing.

I'm in camp 'B', and as such am not asserting a belief, just rejecting the claims of thiests. In this sense I am a-theist.

Regarding the other posts, changing the label but not the dates themselves gives non-christians the ability to take religion somewhat out of the equation, whilst still acknowledging a common reference point. We can all still talk about, for example, the year of the four emperors as being in AD/CE 69 without having to spend time matching up dates of different systems. For example:

'The naval victory of RE 467 ensured...'
'Hang on, what's RE? Are you talking about Salamis, Actium, Ecnomus..?'
'It's my new dating system, split into Republican Era and Imperial Era'
'Oh great! more new dates to learn'

Also, to whoever said that the 365.25 day year was a 'western' imposition I'd say that's a little far-fetched, given that that is a solar year, the time taken for the earth to orbit the sun, thus identical for everybody from westerners to aboriginal Australians on the opposite side of the world. How we all divide up and label time is a different matter.

And to everyone who seems to think we are somehow being forced to use this 'new' system, don't believe everything you read in the papers. It wasn't too long ago that the Daily Fail, I mean Mail (a spectacularly piss-poor, innacurate, truth-twisting toilet roll of a paper here in England) bellowed about the BBC's 'banning' the use of BC/AD on the grounds that it might offend minorities. Turns out the source the Daily Mail used was a tiny memo from the BBC basically saying to it's employees and producers 'Hey, use whatever you want, enough people know what the BCE/CE thing is by now for it to be a commonly understood thing now'

It seems that there are a few slippery slope arguments on this thread which detract from the essential point of it. If you ever hear an argument like 'Banning BC/AD!? what next? forcing our kids to wear burka's? Putting huge 'censored' signs in front of churches?!' then run.