Do All Athiests Recognise The Gregorian Calendar?

Me_Grapes

A serious question, do all athiests count the years since the preceived birth of JC, as is the commonly used method of establishing what year we are currently in, i.e. we call this year 2010, and not the year 13 billion odd? If so, why? Is it habit, conditioning, just the way things are, or do you ever think why you accept the birth of a religious figure as the start of the counting of the years we use in the modern world?

Or are there people who refuse to accept all that, and consider us to be in the year 13 billion?

28064212

I'm sure the some of the chinese atheists use the chinese calendar.

It's irrelevant. It's the most widely used method of timekeeping, and there's no reason to change. It's an arbitrary point chosen for religious reasons originally, but using it does not make one any more religious. Even if Christianity was abandoned en masse, it would still be used. And it's entirely possible to use the system and to describe its workings fully without ever having any knowledge of Christianity

pH

Me_Grapes wrote: »

A serious question, do all athiests count the years since the preceived birth of JC, as is the commonly used method of establishing what year we are currently in, i.e. we call this year 2010, and not the year 13 billion odd? If so, why? Is it habit, conditioning, just the way things are, or do you ever think why you accept the birth of a religious figure as the start of the counting of the years we use in the modern world?

Or are there people who refuse to accept all that, and consider us to be in the year 13 billion?

Yes, and we call the 7th and 8th months of the year July and August, recognizing the divinity of Julius and Augustus Caesar too.

Anyway 27/09/13,500,000,000 would be just a pain to write, then there would be the inevitable war between those who think we should count time from the beginning of the universe and those that think planetary time only started at the creation of the earth.

onlyrocknroll

Me_Grapes wrote: »

A serious question, do all athiests count the years since the preceived birth of JC, as is the commonly used method of establishing what year we are currently in, i.e. we call this year 2010, and not the year 13 billion odd?

Really?

... do you ever think why you accept the birth of a religious figure as the start of the counting of the years we use in the modern world?

Because if we went around insisting on some sort of metric calendar people might think that we are a bit odd. I don't think that following a perfectly adequate convention is hypocritical.

cavedave

The current Unix epoch time is 1285593660 and you will take my computer from my cold dead hands.

Zombrex

Me_Grapes wrote: »

A serious question, do all athiests count the years since the preceived birth of JC, as is the commonly used method of establishing what year we are currently in, i.e. we call this year 2010, and not the year 13 billion odd? If so, why? Is it habit, conditioning, just the way things are, or do you ever think why you accept the birth of a religious figure as the start of the counting of the years we use in the modern world?

Or are there people who refuse to accept all that, and consider us to be in the year 13 billion?

we accept it because we are forced to, because of 2,000 years of Christian wars and empire building, the destruction by Christians of native customs, the genocide of native populations, mean it is one of the few we have left so we are forced through Christian tyrany to continue to use this system if we wish to function in the a world still controlled largely by Christian powers.

















that the sort of answer you were looking for?

seamus

The same reason that we call the freezing point of water zero degrees and not 273.15 degrees Kelvin, and why they are 60 minutes in an hour and not 100, and 24 hours in a day and not 10 - because that's what's commonly used and that's what we're used to.

In addition, the current Gregorian calendar provides a fixed point of time. We don't know exactly how many years it's been since the big bang, therefore it would be folly to try and call now "the year 13,564,345,254" because we wouldn't know that for certain. Instead we now have a fixed point in time around which to say that we are plus or minus a number of years from that fixed point.

Incidentally the Christians largely have their figures wrong and the 1st day of the first year is largely accepted as being a few years away from the actual birth of Christ.

In scientific notation the term "CE" (Current Era) is used in place of "AD". Therefore 10 CE is ten years into the current era and 10 BCE is twenty years before then.

All scales and measures are arbitrary - just taking a random fixed point and then adding grades based on whatever measure you like. Religious origins or not are irrelevant provided that the scale works.

FWIW, I would prefer that there were 13 months rather than 12. This would give us 364 days rather than 365, but most crucially it would mean that we have 13 months of 28 even days each. We then take that extra day, denote as the last day of the year, in no-man's land. The day before is Sunday, the day after it is Monday and it's an excuse to party and celebrate the year that's passed and the year that's coming.
Every four years, you get two of these days. Party!

onlyrocknroll

We also sometimes say "Oh my God!", "Jesus!" or "sweat fancy Moses!" when confronted with crazy questions.

c_man

It's Stardate 45659.7 as far as I'm concerned.

Zombrex

c_man wrote: »

It's Stardate 45659.7 as far as I'm concerned.

Original Series or Next Generation. Chose your answer wisely for there may be the start of a holy war .... :pac:

Rev Hellfire

Wicknight wrote: »

Original Series or Next Generation. Chose your answer wisely for there may be the start of a holy war .... :pac:

There'll be a jihad if they say voyager...

Dades

For the LAST TIME, the only thing atheists have in common is...

Ah nevermind. :pac:

liamw

Dades wrote: »

For the LAST TIME, the only thing atheists have in common is...

Ah nevermind. :pac:

How often do you have to say that now..twice a day on average?

Dermo

I use the Dermo calendar. I'm 9,505 days in. Can't wait for my 10,000 celebrations

Gregor Samsa

Dades wrote: »

For the LAST TIME, the only thing atheists have in common is...

Ah nevermind. :pac:

Now, we all know that to many Theists, a tenet of the Atheist Faith isn't official doctrine until our great and anointed leader Richard Dawkins (praised be His name) pronounces upon it.

Now, it seems that the Lord Dawkins (praised be His corduroy jacket) has been too busy inventing fossils and what not to actually comment upon it himself, but it seems he sent one of his lesser minions to muse upon this matter:

http://richarddawkins.net/discussions/473722-the-holocene-calendar

We all wait with baited breath to see if this proposal pleases His Militantness, so that we know what to think on the subject.

Goduznt Xzst

On a side note, I remember telling one of my friends in secondary school that the Jews, especially in Isreal, observed the Hebrew Calender and used a year number past 5000 or something.

To which he replied: "So you mean the Jews are in the future? Why aren't they flying around in hover cars and shit?"

I believe he smoked a lot of pot.

strobe

seamus wrote: »

FWIW, I would prefer that there were 13 months rather than 12. This would give us 364 days rather than 365, but most crucially it would mean that we have 13 months of 28 even days each. We then take that extra day, denote as the last day of the year, in no-man's land. The day before is Sunday, the day after it is Monday and it's an excuse to party and celebrate the year that's passed and the year that's coming.
Every four years, you get two of these days. Party!

:eek: Brilliant! Have you got a name for the "No-day"? Also for the 13th month? I need details.

mikhail

strobe wrote: »

:eek: Brilliant! Have you got a name for the "No-day"? Also for the 13th month? I need details.

Triskaidekavember has a certain ring to it.

onlyrocknroll

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

On a side note, I remember telling one of my friends in secondary school that the Jews, especially in Isreal, observed the Hebrew Calender and used a year number past 5000 or something.

To which he replied: "So you mean the Jews are in the future? Why aren't they flying around in hover cars and shit?"

I believe he smoked a lot of pot.

I can sympathise. I know a guy who simply could not understand why Europe didn't warn about the US about September the 11th, seeing as we're "ahead of them" in time. Numerous explanations did not help clarify the matter.

Improbable

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

I can sympathise. I know a guy who simply could not understand why Europe didn't warn about the US about September the 11th, seeing as we're "ahead of them" in time. Numerous explanations did not help clarify the matter.

This would be an awesome post to make in CT. The fun you could have!!!

Pygmalion

I do indeed use AD/BC, because it's the only way I can communicate it to other people without ambiguity.

I prefer formatting it YYYY/MM/DD to DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY though, that has nothing to do with atheism and everything to do with the way things are generally ordered in software though :P.

Rabble Rabble

phutyle wrote: »

Now, we all know that to many Theists, a tenet of the Atheist Faith isn't official doctrine until our great and anointed leader Richard Dawkins (praised be His name) pronounces upon it.

Now, it seems that the Lord Dawkins (praised be His corduroy jacket) has been too busy inventing fossils and what not to actually comment upon it himself, but it seems he sent one of his lesser minions to muse upon this matter:

http://richarddawkins.net/discussions/473722-the-holocene-calendar

We all wait with baited breath to see if this proposal pleases His Militantness, so that we know what to think on the subject.

Well, the Gregorian Calendar was seen as a Catholic plot for ages so the Best Place Ever To Be In During the Enlightenment (unlessyouwereanirishcatholic) waited a century.

Still I liked that guy's idea, he didn't want to use AD/ BC any more so he added 10000 years. Not 765 years, not 1298 years but a easy to remember 10000. 1945 becomes 11945.

Just so we can stick it in the eye of Jesus. But not that much, as to get back to where we were we can simply subtract 10,000. The simple folk can ignore the most significant digit.

Zillah

One Thor's Day in the Month for Augustus I said to myself, I best get down to that secularist conference in Alexandria, the religious conservatism favoured by this calendar is downright Victorian! I for one will not be beholden to a Kafkesque system based on arbitrary Stalinesque personality worship!

Nothing should be based on anyone! I shall persue this goal like a Quixotic Captain Ahab!

Zillah

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

To which he replied: "So you mean the Jews are in the future? Why aren't they flying around in hover cars and shit?"

Why is it that hover cars are the universal signifier that the future has arrived? I am as guilty of this as anyone. I distinctly recall thinking as a child that we would have hover cars in the year 2000.

strobe

mikhail wrote: »

Triskaidekavember has a certain ring to it.

That'll do nicely. Time to e-mail Santy and tell him he will be expected at the Strobe household on the night of the 21st of Triskaidekavember this year.

komodosp

Are all Christians going to hell for observing "satur-day" on a regular basis?

monosharp

Me_Grapes wrote: »

A serious question, do all athiests count the years since the preceived birth of JC, as is the commonly used method of establishing what year we are currently in, i.e. we call this year 2010, and not the year 13 billion odd?

Well until 1961 it was about the year 4300 in Korea.
In China it used to be about the same. To Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, other Asians etc it's a different year.

The International community at large use the same numbering system as was developed by Christianity simply because it is the most used. The Asians largely adopted it because of trade with the West and most I've met don't even know it came from Christianity.

I fail to see your point. Do you think we shouldn't use it because it's somehow hypocritical ? You do realise where the names for July and August came from ? Or the days of the week ?

Should Christians stop using 'Monday' ? :pac:

PDN

The guys in the French Revolution tried to bring in a new calendar stripped of religious references. Heck, it even had 'decimal time'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar

Somehow it failed to catch on.

MagicMarker

Stupid thread is stupid.

Zombrex

PDN wrote: »

The guys in the French Revolution tried to bring in a new calendar stripped of religious references. Heck, it even had 'decimal time'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar

Somehow it failed to catch on.

If you don't follow Swatch's Internet time you are an indoctrinated brainwashed theists :pac:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time

@435 ... time for Diet Coke .... dun nun nun dun

seamus

strobe wrote: »

:eek: Brilliant! Have you got a name for the "No-day"?

Xmas works for me.