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
BC and AD were the original names. People started using BCE and CE to avoid direct religious references. (Actually changing the calendar would be too much trouble, and it turns out that Jesus was probably born in 4–6 BCE, so the divide isn’t *really* as religious as intended anyway.)
Now add in [Unix epoch time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time), which is the actual time that literally every computer you interact with is thinking in and referencing. It starts on January 1st, 1970 AD/CE UTC, and it’s measured in seconds since that time and date.
Historically, our calendar system was based on an event that happened 2023 years ago [1], the birth of Jesus Christ. So we called positive years “after Jesus” and negative years “before Jesus.” [2]
Except…we abbreviated “after Jesus” as “AD” [3] and “before Jesus” as “BC” [4].
Some people are uncomfortable with the religious aspect of “AD” and “BC.” So they proposed instead the name “Common Era” for the beginning of the calendar system everyone uses. So basically:
– “CE” (non-religious) = “AD” (religious)
– “BCE” (non-religious) = “BC” (religious)
So for example:
– The current year is 2023 CE, or 2023 AD.
– Julius Caesar was killed in 44 BCE, or 44 BC.
[According to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era) the CE / BCE abbreviations have been around since the 1700’s. But the CE / BCE abbreviations only started to become popular around 2000-2005 or so. Before then, most textbooks and papers would use AD / BC.
[1] The people who first decided to number years this way tried their best to figure out when the historical event occurred, but they were off by a couple years. But by the time people realized the mistake, too many people were using the calendar system and the mistake couldn’t be fixed.
[2] In response to /u/amazingmikeyc comment, it would be more accurate to say “After Jesus’ birth” and “Before Jesus’ birth”, but I want to keep the main text of my answer short and simple. So this goes in a footnote.
[3] “AD” stands for “anno domini”, that means “after Jesus” in Latin.
[4] “BC” stands for “before Christ.”
Because AD and BC have a religious theme in their name people have come up with CE and BCE as alternative labels.
They mean the same thing. AD = CE and BC = BCE
AD was originally based on when a medieval monk thought Jesus Christ was born. Modern scholars who treat the birth of Jesus Christ as an actual historical event believe the original calculation was off by a few years.
The dating system has been widely adopted around the world even by non-Christians. To make it more neutral people have pushed to related it from Anno Domini, the year of the Lord, to Common Era which has no religious connections, but means the same thing.
Note that there is no year 0 in this scheme it went from 1BC to 1AD.
Before Present is not really used in the same way that AD is. It is mostly used in pre-historic dating rather than to describe the timing of actual historic events. It is used for things that happend much longer ago.
For most things dated with BP they happend so long ago and are estimates anyway, that the fact that “present” is a moving reference point doesn’t matter.
A related idea is giving time frames as “years ago”. Mya as in million years ago is used in fir example paleontology.
Now add in [Unix epoch time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time), which is the actual time that literally every computer you interact with is thinking in and referencing. It starts on January 1st, 1970 AD/CE UTC, and it’s measured in seconds since that time and date.
Because AD and BC have a religious theme in their name people have come up with CE and BCE as alternative labels.
They mean the same thing. AD = CE and BC = BCE
AD was originally based on when a medieval monk thought Jesus Christ was born. Modern scholars who treat the birth of Jesus Christ as an actual historical event believe the original calculation was off by a few years.
The dating system has been widely adopted around the world even by non-Christians. To make it more neutral people have pushed to related it from Anno Domini, the year of the Lord, to Common Era which has no religious connections, but means the same thing.
Note that there is no year 0 in this scheme it went from 1BC to 1AD.
Before Present is not really used in the same way that AD is. It is mostly used in pre-historic dating rather than to describe the timing of actual historic events. It is used for things that happend much longer ago.
For most things dated with BP they happend so long ago and are estimates anyway, that the fact that “present” is a moving reference point doesn’t matter.
A related idea is giving time frames as “years ago”. Mya as in million years ago is used in fir example paleontology.
I don’t have anything to contribute that other Redditors haven’t already pointed out, I just wanted tell you, OP, not to be so harsh on yourself. By opening up and seeking the knowledge, that puts you over a truly “stupid” person.
I don’t have anything to contribute that other Redditors haven’t already pointed out, I just wanted tell you, OP, not to be so harsh on yourself. By opening up and seeking the knowledge, that puts you over a truly “stupid” person.
Neil degrasse Tyson has an interesting explanation on this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2itlUlD10M&t=210s
Neil degrasse Tyson has an interesting explanation on this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2itlUlD10M&t=210s
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