So I’ve tried googling this before and I am still so stupid and confused like my brain cannot wrap around how to read these different abbreviations for time and what they actually mean.
The easiest is B.P. (Before present/1950) because I can just do the calculation to turn that into C.E. (Current Era – so like saying 2023 CE is right now, right?), but how do these ways of expressing time translate to one another?
Like for example, A.D. (“in the year of the lord”, but does this translate to C.E.? Are these the same?) 500 vs 500 B.C. (Before Christ? I’m not religious so idk what this really means irl). How are these different and how do they translate into B.P. And C.E. terms? How can I remember which one to use? Explain it to me like I’m 5 and like it’s my first day on the fucking planet. Thank you!
In: 54
I would also like to point out that I’ve seen some writers simplify this (e.g. Alan Watts).
They use the plus symbol (+) for any year AD, and minus symbol (-) for any year BC.
So AD 2023 becomes +2023. For example, for the other way around, the year Confucius was born was around BC 551, so that becomes -551.
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