THE ROLE OF SECULARISM IN THE SHIFT FROM“BEFORE CHRIST” (BC) AND “ANNO DOMINI” (AD) TO “COMMON ERA” (CE) AND “BEFORE COMMON ERA” (BCE) IN MODERN HISTORICAL DATING

Abstract

Since man is a religious being, human history and calendars are inextricably connected with the acts of divine beings in all major world religions. The long-time tradition and universally accepted practice of identifying and dating events in history with reference to before and after the birth of Jesus Christ has been challenged and substituted by scholars in our modern times. Various factors have contributed to the adoption of the terms “BCE' (Before Common Era) and “CE” (Common Era) in place of “BC” (Before Christ) and “AD” (Anno Domini – in the year of our Lord. In contrast with the conservatism of the few remaining orthodox Christian writers, the general acceptance of the change in the science and the academia fields has increased markedly during the st last decades of the 20th century and spreading fast into the 21 century. Along this trajectory of change, some countries in the Western world have officially replaced the usage of BC/AD with BCE/CE in their educational curriculum, and the strongest season given for this is inclusivity – to accommodate people of other faiths who resent and consequently question the dominance of the name of Christ the founder of Christianity in the dating of events in history. Other scholars labouring to disprove the basis and the credibility of the BC/AD dating system put up various arguments in their disputation that the birth of Christ which Christian apologetics put at 6BC was from a flawed calculation. Although some Christian academics and contemporary writers continue with the BC/AD dating system, it is pertinent to state that the inherent relativistic approach which contributes to the decline of the religious has significantly contributed to the silent acquiescence of the vast majority of Christians to the onslaught on this long-standing advantage that Christianity had naturally acquired over the past centuries in the universal dating of events in history.