[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Wikitech-l] BC vs BCE era names

[Akash Mehta]

When you put it that way, it seems that BCE/CE is the only option. So
how do we implement this, an AWB bot run changing every BC to a BCE?

On 9/5/06, Guettarda <guettarda at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9/5/06, Akash Mehta <draicone at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Yes, but at the same time we must respect that everyone has varied
> > religious beliefs, and I wouldn't be surprised if around about half of
> > users supported BC, while the other half did not.
>
>
> While this is true, the division was not solely along religious lines - many
> people who identified themselves Christian, myself included, feel in the
> half that supported BCE/CE on the basis of NPOV.  The problem with accepting
> a POV in dating systems is that we would have to support ALL dating
> systems.  Only supporting BC/AD and BCE/CE is to codify systemic bias.
> However, adding other dating systems isn't easy, because lunar calendars
> (for example) don't match precisely with solar ones.  So if we allowed a
> user to pick a preferences of say, the Islamic calendar or the old Russian
> calendar, many year-only dates would become ambiguous.
>
> However, you have a
> > point, NPOV means BCE.
>
>
> BC means "Before Christ", and that (obviously) refers to Jesus of Nazareth.
> So if you say "before Christ" in reference to him, you are asserting that
> Jesus is the Messiah (Christ is the Greek version of the word).  Similarly,
> if you say "in the Lord's year" and the reference is unequivocally to Jesus,
> then you are asserting that Jesus is Lord (which, in this context, has come
> to mean God)
>
>
> Then again, must we assert that Jesus is the
> > Messiah/God? We must merely assert that he is christ and that the
> > calendar is based around his birth (which it certainly appears to be,
> > if he existed when he supposedly did).
>
>
> As above, Christ means Messiah, so you can't separate the two.  On the other
> hand, BCE (before the common era) and CE (common era) meet the requirement
> of NPOV by describing the current state of affairs in which the dating
> system is based around the birth of Jesus, without actually asserting that
> he is the Messiah or God.
>
>
> On 9/5/06, Guettarda <guettarda at gmail.com> 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.
> > >
> > > On 9/5/06, Akash Mehta <draicone at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Go figure :) I suppose thats all you can put in an article like MoS
> > > > anyway. I personally think any policy article that doesn't change
> > > > regularly (i.e. no voting pages, no listings and relistings) shouldn't
> > > > go over 10kb for readability's sake. Anything more is just too much
> > > > content for one page. And there's the added advantage that mailing
> > > > list users don't need to abbreviate policy :)
> > > >
> > > > On 9/5/06, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > On 05/09/06, Akash Mehta <draicone at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > "whatever it is now, leave it kthx."
> > > > > > that must be the most concise decision ever :)
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > I am simplifying greatly ;-)
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > - d.
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