A letter to Sir Paul Nurse, The Royal Society.
John Zande has sent a letter to the Royal Society requesting the removal of the Christian calendar era designations BC and AD, and the adoption of the secular designations BCE and CE. Moreover, he has provided a recommendation for a new waypoint; one that represents humanity’s achievement as a whole, rather than 1 out of 7 people. A link to John’s letter can be found above. Also, please find a link to his petition below. I highly encourage every one to get involved in this. Even if you disagree with his recommended waypoint (Thaïs bone), or disagree with the need to re-designate the era altogether, it’s an interesting topic worthy of discussion.
Categories: History
Tags: Agnostic, atheism, Christianity, History, Religion, Royal Society, Secular
Reblogged this on The Asifoscope and commented:
Something worth thinking about. I think AD and BC have to go out. Resetting the starting point of the calendar might be less realistic, but I support the idea because we have to realize how arbitrary and culture-centric the currently used starting point of our calendar is. Information about the Thaïs bone can be found here: http://www2.astronomicalheritage.net/index.php/show-entity?identity=2&idsubentity=1
Yes, resetting the starting point is significantly less likely, but worth a try. Still, it would be a victory even if the Royal Society only changed the designations.
It is worth trying to get a discussion going. I have sent the links to the Giordano Bruno Stiftung, (http://www.giordano-bruno-stiftung.de/) asking them to publish it in their next email newsletter.
Fantastic! If you haven’t already, please let John know. I’m sure he’d appreciate hearing about it!
Looks like the ball has officially started rolling!
Indeed! I’m finding people are less than enthusiastic about this though. Too bad.
Us too. It’s so ingrained into our culture now that people prefer to not think about it.
I added my ‘click’ over at John’s spot. Maybe Sir Terry Pratchett should be offered the chance to do the renaming?
Maybe something along the lines of: Year of the Wayward Camel.
I think Pratchett would be an excellent choice! Though, I think the Wayward Camel reference blew past me. Sorry to ruin what I’m sure was a perfect joke, but do tell???
No hidden meaning, I’m afraid, it sounded ‘Pratettish’ and just came to mind.
He is always on about The Year of the Fruitbat.
And spell-check went for a burton…lol Poor old Sir Terry. Obviously it should have said..Pratchettish
Meh…
I’m less critical about spelling when it comes to comments. Just don’t let poor spelling and/or grammar slip into your writing. I’ll immediately leave your blog if I feel your stories aren’t being reviewed properly – you lose all credibility if that happens, Ark.
I all ways chekk my smelling when I rite stories. It is the marc of a gud orther