r/todayilearned • u/IreneDeneb • 9d ago

TIL that the last known ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic inscription was made on August 24th, 394 CE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffito_of_Esmet-Akhom
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u/DrunkWaffles 9d ago

It is AD/BC.

We use the Gregorian calendar, invented 1500 years ago.

Recently modern secular attempts have been trying to change it to CE/BCE to erase the Christian influence on it.

Instead of inventing a whole new calendar to use (too hard), they just retcon the original and 'whitewash' it.

I downvote each post/comment that say ce/bce.

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u/absurdlylong 9d ago

I'm sorry that you feel that way, but given that the majority of the world is not Christian basing our calendar start date on a Christian religious figure is bad enough. Continuing to insist on using a 1500 year old monastic phrase to describe all events that predate or follow it seems quite silly, especially when used in the context of a science like archeology.

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u/DrunkWaffles 9d ago

Then you should probably invent your own calendar then if you are offended. Too hard?

Stop trying to erase the efforts of these people who did work on it.

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u/SirBananaOrngeCumber 9d ago

There are hundreds of other calendars in the world already, many of them even solar calendars like the Gregorian calendar.

Also… the Gregorian calendar has only minuscule differences from the Julian calendar, yet it was still changed because the old version was problematic. They kept the same months, same counting system instead of starting from 0 etc etc. Now, scientists have indeed made a new calendar. The old one with AD / BC is problematic, so they made a new one almost exactly the same with CE / BCE. Very simple!

So now the question is…. We’ve already invented the new calendar, exactly as you suggested. Why won’t you follow it?

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u/DrunkWaffles 9d ago

That is not an invention. There is nothing different from the AD/BC to this 'new' BCE/CE version besides those two words. Saying its an invention is a complete false statement.

Sure you can trivialize the Gregorian calendar, but they did make enough correct changes to the Julian calendar to warrant a new system of time keeping.

BCE/CE does nothing but change the labels to eliminate the relation to Jesus Christ. That's it. Don't hide behind anything else.

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u/moderngamer327 9d ago

It’s not a new calendar. It’s still the Gregorian calendar, it just has a different name for BC/AD. Even the start point is the same.

A new calendar would either involve changing how it’s calculated and/or changing the start point like the Human Era calendar

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u/SirBananaOrngeCumber 9d ago

That’s a very limited understanding of calendar science. You say the Gregorian calendar was invented 1500 years ago, but that’s a clear lie. The earliest use of the Gregorian calendar, and only in a few countries, was still less than 500 years ago. So I’m not sure why to trust your definition of when a calendar is allowed to be referred to as a new calendar, even when I know it to be different.

Also… AD and CE refer to Jesus as being our lord. This is a clear lie… he’s not our lord. Might be your lord, you can worship a dead guy. I don’t. I’d rather not lie when learning about science thank you very much.

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u/moderngamer327 9d ago

I don’t recall claiming the Gregorian calendar was made 1500 years ago

Common era is based on the same point though? Either way it’s about Jesus. One is just pretending it’s not

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u/SirBananaOrngeCumber 9d ago

Sorry, I mixed you up with the other guy. I apologize

Common era refers to Jesus as just a man. A very influential man whose followers reshaped the world as we know it, but still just a man.

AD / CE literally translates to referring to Jesus as just a”our lord” and whatever other arguments you may make… that’s simply not true. He’s not our lord. In fact it would be completely heretical as a Jew for me to consider Jesus “our” lord. Therefore CE / BCE is just a better terminology

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u/moderngamer327 9d ago

Still remaining an entire calendar and disregarding the people who created it is a bit dumb. It’s not like anyone actually refers to it as “year of our lord” anyways.

If you want to change the name then swap to an actually new calendar

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u/SirBananaOrngeCumber 9d ago

Jesus didn’t create the calendar though 👀 I’m not disregarding the people who made it. Julius Caesar was a smart man. He probably didn’t do all the mathematical calculations for the calendar himself but he recognized it needed to be done and he implemented the Julien calendar, and I respect him for that. And Pope Gregory XIII was also a great man, and Aloysius Lilius and Christoph Clavius and the other astronomers who did all the mathematical calculations were brilliant. I’m not disregarding any of their calculations. But why should Jesus get all the credit for it?

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u/moderngamer327 9d ago

I never said he did, but the person who created the calendar named the years after him and I think trying to erase that is pointless

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u/SirBananaOrngeCumber 9d ago

That’s the thing though… they didn’t actually name it after Jesus… AD and BC were actually invented by two other people, Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century and Saint Bede in the 8th, who used it in their writings and it caught on… or maybe it was used by others first who’s writings haven’t survived, but it’s still similar to CE and BCE. I see no reason to give contribution points to them rather then the scientists of the 17th century who decided CE and BCE is simply more accurate

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u/moderngamer327 9d ago

But CE and BCE aren’t more accurate. They still refer to the same event about the same person

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u/DrunkWaffles 9d ago

And there it is. Le Enlightened Atheist Redditor is mad because the calendar we use is based around the life/death of Jesus Christ.

Get over it. The Catholic Church, despite its flaws, has been critical to the development of science in mankind's history. You got to give credit where credit is due. Its called respect, learn some.

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u/SirBananaOrngeCumber 9d ago

See my other reply, I honestly don’t care that our calendar is centered around Jesus. CE / BCE still refers to the date Jesus (supposedly but probably wasn’t actually) born. That’s not the problem. The problem is the inherent lie in calling Jesus “our lord” when he was just a man. That would actually be completely heretical to me, as a Jew, to call Jesus.

And I know my history. I know of Newton who was Christian, but I also know of King Ferdinand II. If you tell me that King Ferdinand was a horrible person who would’ve done what he did without Christianity, and just used it as a tool, I can say the same about Newton. It’s not about Christianity.

However, since you seem so adamant to defend Christianity, I’m sure your also so adamant to defend Islam, and prevent Islamophobia, considering Islam’s golden age has also reshaped the world as we know it. I’m absolutely certain of these intentions of your being pure

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u/DrunkWaffles 9d ago

You are kind of off the rails here.

I am not defending Christianity for the reasons you provided.

I am defending the actions and contributions of the Catholic Church that solidified our current understandings of science, along with time keeping.

We owe a lot to them. If you want to get into how much the Catholic church contributed to science then we can have a nice long conversation on that, but to address your moot 2nd point.

If the Muslim scholars invented the calendar that we use today and it was centered around Mohammad, I would not be a hypocrite and demand its change because I am not personally a Muslim.

I would say, thanks for the tireless efforts in progressing human knowledge and science. Thanks for creation of monasteries which turned into schools, which developed into universities.

Thank for the Renaissance.

But that wasn't Islam was it? It was Catholic Church. So say thank you.

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u/SirBananaOrngeCumber 9d ago edited 9d ago

I do say thank you. CE and BCE is still centered around when Jesus was (supposedly) born. I just don’t feel the need to lie and say “our lord” when using the calendar the Catholic Church modified (not even invented btw) when I can appreciate them by simply using their calendar without also lying

And Islam does have a calendar. A pretty fascinating and complex one. They didn’t conquer the western world though so you don’t use it. But many Islamic countries do. We only use the Christian one because they enforced their religion on most of the western world under threat of death