Andrew Gray wrote:
On 05/09/06, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Guettarda wrote:
Actually one of the major issues in the dispute is whether BC/AD violates NPOV because it requires Wikipedia to make an assertion the Jesus is the Messiah/God. BCE/CE merely describes the condition, and thus does what the NPOV policy asks.
That's a disingenuous presentation of the problem. Can you show a single instance where your assertion that Jesus is Messiah/God is required, and that is not a part of someone's argument against BC/AD? The use of BC/AD merely requires that there may have been an historical Jesus who was born at or near a time that is reasonably consistent with the dating system. The idiotic assertion that Jesus was God is irrelevant.
Anno Domini. "In the year of the Lord..."
I'm aware of the etymology, and I don't think that Cicero and Ovid were referring to Jesus when they used "dominus to refer to a husband or lover or to an owner or proprietor. Could one argue that a person who put himself under the control of a _dominatrix_ was receiving his pleasure from God?
Or maybe we should stop using the Gregorian calendar because it was promoted by Pope Gregory, and somehow that would mean that we are expressing a POV in support of the Roman Catholic Church.
(I don't agree with Guettarda - I feel using BCE/CE is as much making an explicit point as using BC/AD is - but I do suspect the above is kind of his point)
Good. I think writers should feel free to use whichever form they prefer without being beset by the obsessives in either camp.
Ec