Do All Athiests Recognise The Gregorian Calendar?

Me_Grapes · 27-09-2010 2:00pm #1

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?

27-09-2010 2:11pm

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 · 27-09-2010 2:14pm

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 · 27-09-2010 2:17pm

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 · 27-09-2010 2:22pm

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

Zombrex · 27-09-2010 2:22pm

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 · 27-09-2010 2:23pm

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 · 27-09-2010 2:26pm

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

c_man · 27-09-2010 2:40pm

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

Zombrex · 27-09-2010 2:54pm

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 · 27-09-2010 3:16pm

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 · 27-09-2010 3:23pm

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

Ah nevermind. :pac:

liamw · 27-09-2010 3:30pm

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 · 27-09-2010 3:41pm

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

Gregor Samsa · 27-09-2010 4:02pm

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 · 27-09-2010 7:54pm

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 · 27-09-2010 7:59pm

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 · 27-09-2010 8:04pm

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 · 27-09-2010 8:12pm

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 · 27-09-2010 8:17pm

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 · 27-09-2010 8:20pm

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 · 27-09-2010 8:29pm

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 · 27-09-2010 8:44pm

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 · 27-09-2010 8:48pm

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 · 27-09-2010 8:52pm

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 · 27-09-2010 11:34pm

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

monosharp · 28-09-2010 2:14am

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 · 28-09-2010 4:24am

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 · 28-09-2010 8:32am

Stupid thread is stupid.

Zombrex · 28-09-2010 10:45am

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 · 28-09-2010 1:16pm

strobe wrote: »

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

Xmas works for me.

marco_polo · 28-09-2010 4:14pm

I sure do OP, why just the other day I walked past one and said 'Oh, look a Calendar'

True story.

onlyrocknroll · 28-09-2010 4:18pm

marco_polo wrote: »

I sure do OP, why just the other day I walked past one and said 'Oh, look a Calendar'

True story.

Funny you should say that, every time I see one I say "what the hell is that?"

Turtwig · 28-09-2010 6:19pm

Generally speaking because Western Culture was so heavily dominated by Christianity all years are notated as either AD or BC. However, nowadays in anything I type I follow the more politically correct ACE and BCE. After and Before Common Era. It's an era that most people used to refer to, hence the common era, but it loses its religious tones.

So CE ftw.

alex73 · 28-09-2010 9:34pm

Typical Atheist thread... ANYTHING to do with religion and they have to find a reason not to agree with it.

Incidentally not all Christians follow the Gregorian Calendar. If you go to Athos they follow the Julian calendar.

Pygmalion · 28-09-2010 9:43pm

alex73 wrote: »

Typical Atheist thread... ANYTHING to do with religion and they have to find a reason not to agree with it.

Incidentally not all Christians follow the Gregorian Calendar. If you go to Athos they follow the Julian calendar.

Typical Christian response.
Insisting that reality is the exact opposite to how it plainly appears.

alex73 · 28-09-2010 9:53pm

Pygmalion wrote: »

Typical Christian response.
Insisting that reality is the exact opposite to how it plainly appears.

No, The Gregorian calendar is a means to track time. Nowadays its not about religion any more. Yet the Post is about "Do all atheists recognise the Gregorian calendar" As if to say it denotes a soft point to religion. Anyway the Gregorian Calendar is mostly the old Roman one, its was a practical arrangement to keep time, setting Christ as the start.

Turtwig · 28-09-2010 9:55pm

alex73 wrote: »

No, The Gregorian calendar is a means to track time. Nowadays its not about religion any more. Yet the Post is about "Do all atheists recognise the Gregorian calendar" As if to say it denotes a soft point to religion. Anyway the Gregorian Calendar is mostly the old Roman one, its was a practical arrangement to keep time, setting Christ as the start.

Yeah, but maybe you should read the entire thread first, or at the very least read enough to grab the prevailing sentiment by posters before proclaiming what you think others opinion or character is. Just a suggestion.

Pygmalion · 28-09-2010 9:57pm

alex73 wrote: »

No, The Gregorian calendar is a means to track time. Nowadays its not about religion any more. Yet the Post is about "Do all atheists recognise the Gregorian calendar" As if to say it denotes a soft point to religion.

And all the responses are either jokes or people saying that it doesn't matter at all.
Only the OP suggested it denotes a soft point to religion and I presumed (s)he was not an atheist from reading his/her post.

Dades · 28-09-2010 10:03pm

alex73 wrote: »

Typical Atheist thread... ANYTHING to do with religion and they have to find a reason not to agree with it.

That is such a fail.

Galvasean · 28-09-2010 10:19pm

Zillah wrote: »

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.

I blame the Jetsons. 21st Century indeed.

Ghost Buster · 28-09-2010 10:23pm

Pygmalion wrote: »

And all the responses are either jokes or people saying that it doesn't matter at all.
Only the OP suggested it denotes a soft point to religion and I presumed (s)he was not an atheist from reading his/her post.

Hey. D'ja ever notice the sense of humour is much better over here. Youd think that going to heaven and such would make the Christians a little happier.:)

Marcus.Aurelius · 28-09-2010 10:50pm

Ghost Buster wrote: »

Hey. D'ja ever notice the sense of humour is much better over here. Youd think that going to heaven and such would make the Christians a little happier.:)

Personally I'm not happy with a thread unless there's at least one fundie wigging out in situ.

Goduznt Xzst · 28-09-2010 11:12pm

Zillah wrote: »

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.

Don't forget silver leotards and jumpsuits. When I'm sitting in my hover car, wearing my silver leotard, eating my caramel flavoured Soylent green bar while watching c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate I'll know the future is now.

robindch · 28-09-2010 11:13pm

Me_Grapes wrote: »

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

I think the closest you'll get is the International Astronomical Union's recommendation of the Julian Day Number whose origin is in January 1st, 4713 BC - at the moment, we're somewhere around JDN 2,455,000.

BTW, for any old-timers out there, VAX's origined their time from JDN 2,400,000, which was sometime during 1858.

cavedave wrote: »

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

...or you'll scrap it yourself, come 2038.

robindch · 28-09-2010 11:19pm

alex73 wrote: »

Anyway the Gregorian Calendar is mostly the old Roman one, its was a practical arrangement to keep time, setting Christ as the start.

Only that the usually accepted dates are all wrong since Jesus must have been born before Herod's death in ~4BC.

So the birthday (christmas) is an invention, he wasn't born in 0AD or 1AD, his mum was a virgin and his old fella created the universe.

I'd say he had a real hard time in school.