breathilizer

Why is it that counting years started at the same time Jesus is said to have lived?

(Yes, I realize that different cultures have different years)

Badfish

Thats a good question, and it could be like 2005 CE, or maybe 2003, but the history of the Gregorian Calendar can be found here and its pretty interesting.

Im not preaching (although thanks to calladus I am an ordained minister now LOL) , but a lot of things have been adopted from Christianity and gauged against it. Whether true or not, it has had an impact on society.

nermal

Hey, Brada. I'm an ordained minister too!

I married me own sweet mother!

Ed

JohnKin79

Hopefully you mean you performed your mother's wedding ceremony, not that you're now married to your mother.

Badfish

I hope so too.

The Evil One

THe AD/BC calendar was, of course, not introduced at the time. It was introduced centuries later (in the year that became known as 325AD iirc) after Christianity had gained political power.

Many cultures count years from significant events - the Romans from the founding of the city, the Jews from the beginning of the world (the other common way is to count by years in a king's reign). In this sense, for the Christians to introduce a new system was not an innovation, but is better seen as an assertion of Christ's birth as being more important than any of these other events variously used to count the years from.

Of course, BC/AD became universal in Europe due to Christianity prevailing, and with a rise in literacy, became sufficiently widely used that no other system was viable; which is it is used today in the West even by non-Christians, albeit with the non-religious designations CE and BCE (whihc are also used by many non-fundy Christians when not addressing religious matters).

So in short, why do we date from Christ's birth? - because the 4th century Christians instituted such a calendar in keeping with ancient tradition; and because it would be more trouble than it's worth for modern non-Christians in the West to try and change it. From an atheist's perspective it's jsut an arbitrary number, of course; the founding of Rome would have done just as well.

The other point to note is that the monks who calculated Christ's birth from the gospels got it wrong. MAtthew puts the nativity in 4BC or before, and Luke puts it in 6AD.

nermal

Ha! Nope, I married her to my stepdad. 'Swhy I became a minister.

Ed