Common Era Mod

[Half Fast]

Alcatraz, I laughed at your notion of some hard core anti-religious liberals hiding in a bunker, but im sad to say there are a lot of liberals who aren't quite like you. Eight families managed to exterminate brief implications of a God/gods in biology class, and others are offended at the sight of the ten commandments in a classroom or courthouse.
You say that the BC/AD system isn't based on anyone's birth? I can't imagine what else it its based on. BC=before Christ and AD=anno domini (year of our Lord).
Please, no one take offense here.(I accidently inflamed someone on another thread, I tried to be nice)

 

[Alcatraz]

Alcatraz, I laughed at your notion of some hard core anti-religious liberals hiding in a bunker, but im sad to say there are a lot of liberals who aren't quite like you. Eight families managed to exterminate brief implications of a God/gods in biology class, and others are offended at the sight of the ten commandments in a classroom or courthouse.

My point precisely... 8 families does not equal the vast majority of liberals. As an example of one of the earliest systems of codified law, the 10 commandments are appropriate in a courthouse, just as the bas relief over the entrance to the Supreme Court contains depictions of both Moses and Mohammed.

You say that the BC/AD system isn't based on anyone's birth? I can't imagine what else it its based on. BC=before Christ and AD=anno domini (year of our Lord).
Please, no one take offense here.(I accidently inflamed someone on another thread, I tried to be nice)

As I said, it contains the name of a Christian figure (Christ). But it is not based on his actual date of birth. The BC/AD system was adopted in the 6th century and a monk named Dionysius was tasked with calculating the year of Christ's birth, which he did by consulting the gospels. There are mentions of various dates under the Roman calendar along with Christ's age at the time. Unfortunately, Dionysius made a math error along the way and as a result Jesus was probably 6 years old in 1 AD (note that there is no such year as 0 AD or 0 BC). Thus the AD/BC system is not based on the birth of Christ. The year 1 AD is an arbitrary point in time from which we measure the current year.

For the record, Christ was also not born on December 25th. That was a date of a pagan holiday adopted into Christianity. His exact birthdate is not known but clues in the gospels tend to indicate that his birth was sometime in the spring. Nearly all of the traditions revolving around Christmas are borrowed from pagan religions. In fact, did you know that celebrating Christmas was once banned in Boston? In the 16th century, by the Puritans, who were offended by all the sacrilige involved.

 

[Perfect_Blue]

Wasn't it Saturnalia that was 'copied/stolen?' Had to convert those vile pagans and their evil gift giving holiday.

I would be interested in seeing some Latin American calendrical systems; perhaps the Mayan or Incan calenders. If I remember right, according to the Incan calender, which runs in a spiral (incredibly fascinating!) we should be coming up to the end of the world, or a time of revolution or some such thing...

I'd love to see some other calendrical systems, especially non-Western, because it seems that beyond the West linear time is not such a definate. I'm sure that would probably be a pain to try and code though...

 

[Mauritania]

EH? well ive never even heard of this CE system, never mind anyone that uses it. I'm an Atheist and i use AD and BC, and always will. Though i always did think it was a bit silly using it in civ, can you imagine the people?
"what year is it bob?"
"3980"
"Why we counting down?"
"i dunno, maybe we'll find out in the year 0"

I guess we'll also find out when the Mayan calander finishes on 2012 or 0 if its the time of the second coming.

(Note to self: Stop reading conspiracy theory websites)

 

[Gunner]

I've always wondered what's so common about the common era. Someone should have been able to come up with a better name than that.

I'm actually somewhat partial to going back to the Roman system of counting since the founding of Rome. That would be pretty cool.

 

[CurtSibling]

You mention relgion anywhere, and you get a whine/debate...!

If a person does not approve of a mod that threatens their precious faith, don't use it.

Let people mod CIV4 as they see fit.

 

[Hugin]

One relatively minor point:
1) Some historians used AD/BC until quite recently. The most recent work that I can remember off hand that used it was published in the late 80's. It largely depends on the time period that the historian works in. Unless you are looking at modern history (or pulp history) you'll still be seeing a whole lotta AD's where you might expect a CE. Hence, calling the system archaic is anachronistic. Even in modern history circles, using AD instead of CE is like using contractions. Some people get uppity about it, but in the end it doesn’t matter.

On a tangent, if nothing else the AD/BC system is useful since it was the first to allow one to count backwards in history. Makes dating the age of the earth much easier.

However many cultures dated from the start of their lord's rule. I wonder if it would be possible to fetch the initials of the player's name and include those into the dating system. A sort of "in the year of the player."

 

[PotatoSamurai]

The AD/BC system isn't used in humanities because it implies a position of belief: "Anno Domini" is "The Year of Our Lord".

On a sidenote, any chance this could be made into a module?

 

[johny smith]

This is so simple and good.

 

[GeoModder]

What discussions that still arise in this 1428th year after the Year of the Elephant.

 

[Izmunuti]

Wasn't it Saturnalia that was 'copied/stolen?' Had to convert those vile pagans and their evil gift giving holiday.

I would be interested in seeing some Latin American calendrical systems; perhaps the Mayan or Incan calenders. If I remember right, according to the Incan calender, which runs in a spiral (incredibly fascinating!) we should be coming up to the end of the world, or a time of revolution or some such thing...

I'd love to see some other calendrical systems, especially non-Western, because it seems that beyond the West linear time is not such a definate. I'm sure that would probably be a pain to try and code though...

There's actually dozens of festivals at that time all of which are based on the winter solstice. The specific festivals co-opted were the Greco-Roman Saturnalia and the Wiccan/Nordic Yule (hence Yuletide). After that Easter falls on the Festival of fertility at the Spring Equinox.

The cyclical calender you're refering to is (as mentioned in the post below yours) the Mayan Long Count, though if I recall correctly we're only coming up to the end of the Short Count (a time of great upheaval) and the Long Count doesn't end until something like the year 30,000 AD/CE.

More on topic just about any calendar other that something based on the founding of your civ' is going to be hopelessly inaccurate. Such as my personal favourite (and probably wholly imaginary): Terrestrial Era and Cosmological Era, centered on Yuri Gagarin's space flight.

 

[Wolfshanze]

Ah, the politically correct colleges invented new politically correct dating names for "more professional" use!?!?

Shows I'm hanging with the wrong crowd in my old age, as I've NEVER heard of this "Common Era" terminology... guess that's cuz I don't hang around college campuses or the young pups on them!

As a clarification, I'm a grumpy old man by most folks thinking, and I'm marginally religous. I claim to be Christian, but I haven't stepped inside a church in a couple of decades I think.

Having said that, everyone I know, talk to, and converse with considers this 2007 A.D. (though we rarely say "Year of our Lord" unless we're looking for a chuckle, and then we have to do it with a Shakespearian accent).

I'm not much of one for liking political correctness, which this "common era" seems to originate from... don't want to offend anyone, but I've never heard of it before (then again, I don't hang-out on college campuses). Of course, I can assure anyone who spends a lot of time on college campuses listening to professors that the real world don't operate like Berkeley campus!

Still... "whatever floats your boat" is my motto... if you go around saying "in the year of our 2007 Common Era", more power to you. I spent 20 years of my life in the military trying to ensure everybody can think, say and act in whatever belief system they so desire... Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Athiest, whatever... oh, and my (rather younger) wife calls herself an "Agnostic"... which to me is just fancy-talk for "Athiest", but that's another politically-correct thing I guess... I'm actually pretty easy going (well, wouldn't I be if I'm a Christian married to an Athiest?).

I guess I'll have to ask my wife about this "Common Era" stuff when I get home. Never heard of it... maybe she has...

Have fun with this mod guys... I might say "in the year of our Lord" a few times today just to get some chuckles... but seriously, nobody I know has ever used the term "Common Era"... guess you learn something new every day... and I learned it here on this forum!

Hope I didn't offend anyone... this has just been a mindless Wolf-rant with no purpose!

 

[Izmunuti]

[..] oh, and my (rather younger) wife calls herself an "Agnostic"... which to me is just fancy-talk for "Athiest", [..]

Obviously I don't know precisely what your wife means when she says she's Agnostic but as a rule an Agnostic beliefs in God, but not any of the dogmas put forth by Organised Religion. So not really an Atheist.

It can get a little muddied though, by the loosest of definitions I could be Agnostic, wheras really I'm just an Atheist who happens to believe in some of the tennants of Buddhism.

 

[Wolfshanze]

I dunno... my wife says she doesn't believe in God (which I call an Athiest), but she keeps telling me she's Agnostic.

Nonetheless, she refers to everything as BC & AD in terms of years... and for the "Common Era" to be the non-religous political correct term for years, we're still in the Common Era year of 2007... which last time I checked was based on the birth of a religous figure. If it was "Common Era" year 6472, I might believe it wasn't based on a Christian birth-date.

 

[johny smith]

The point is that it is neutral. It could be the hula hoop or donut calendar. It does not matter. The important thing is people do not follow the Christian calendar in many other countries.