i do believe my friend that the earth is as old as the scientist have stated.
my only question why my Lord was chosen to be the point in which history was divided.
he must have been such a character
isn't He?

Because the person who chose that reference point was obviously a Christian.

I seriously doubt that a Buddhist chose it.

But then you never know.

1 Corinthians 3:19
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

certainly it was a christian
but as far as I'm concern it has lasted for centuries over centuries
it's because my Lord it's the Son of God, and as far as I know his Godly nature is the strength behind it.
call me fundamentalist, it's fine with me
but for me that is one of the biggest proofs of why my Lord is my Lord.

I certainly have no desire to question your personal beliefs Miguel, but as you know I lean toward the logos and, for me, there’s just no surprise here. People simply don’t go changing calendars around easily. There’s just no motivation to do that. It would just confuse historical records and serve no practical purpose.

So the “strength” that you refer to of why it lasted so long doesn’t impress me as being anything out of the ordinary. It’s a historical fact that that churches were the leading institutions for keeping records for most of that time, and they would naturally use their calendar.

In fact the printing press wasn’t invented until 1440, less than 600 years ago. Prior to that all records were keep by hand by scribes and priests. So the calendar had a good thousand years or so to become well-established before records began to be printed. Who’s going to suggest that they change the calendar system at that point?

What you see as “proof”, I see as a totally expected situation considering who was keeping the records.

But whatever. Like I say, I have no desire to sway your personal beliefs. But since you opened the topic up to public discussion I feel compelled to say that just don’t see anything significant here at all. This is precisely what I would expect given the history of the period and the beliefs of the masses. After all, how many religions did they actually have to choose from?

It was pretty much either Christianity, Judaism (which was almost considered more of a nationality and race than a religion), or paganism which was seen as witchcraft and demonic by many people.

In short, they didn’t have many choices. It was basically either Christianity or atheism for all intents and purposes. Most people of that time weren’t even seriously aware of the religions of the far east, Africa, or North American Indians. And even if they had been they would have most likely rejected them in favor of what they were used to.

So where was the competition?

For all intents and purposes there was none. That’s why it survived. Not due to any magical “strength”.

A Hindu, Buddhist, or Taoist could use the same arguments. Their religions must be right because those religions survived for eons in their cultures too.

So all religions have equal ‘proof’ then.

I forgot to mention Islam.

They have their own calendar.

So I guess that proves that their religion must be right too?

magical "strength"
u r too funny James

Hmmm, this is one of the curiosities I've always had when it comes to the bible. Which parts are we supposed to take literally and which parts are we supposed to take symbolically. I'm going to paraphrase hugely here because for some reason my redneck/hillbilly aspect/accent always comes out in this type of moment, so here goes: John the Baptist dunks Jesus for the Baptism after Jesus tells him, yup, its time and its part of your gig to do this. A voice is heard by some, but not all proclaiming, check it y'all that's my boy/son.

I always figured he was proclaimed the son by God because he lived and acted out the word of God and guess what, it was something we all could achieve as are we not all born of man(technically shouldn't that be woman or both?), yet also sons and daughters of God? Also, if you take that literally, it means God won't recognize you unless you go through the baptism ritual.

i was waiting for u lady
without ur input this would've been incomplete

I find that highly unlikely, but appreciate the sentiment. Also, just a point I did notice since y'all were discussing calendars, I believe the Jewish faith also has a separate calendar too.

don't feel too lucky now

LW, totally lost as to where that came from, but I hope it gets better....

I'm afraid my explanation for why the western world uses the gregorian calendar has more to do with the aggression of early Christians. Christianity was frequently a conquering religion... chrisitan soldiers basically beat and killed unbelievers so I would say that the spread of the calendar was often by physical force- e.g. what happened in the americas...

Miguel, is this not what happened in Ecuador as well? That there were native Indios who had their own calendar and then the spanish came and conquered and converted the native people and made them use the western/christian calendar? Regardless, it is what happened many places...

As far as why the calendar is still used I think several people have pointed out that this calendar is only used in countries that are predominantly (many due to conquest/domination by christians as previously mentioned) christian. So it makes sense to me that if most of the inhabitants are christian then they wouldn't try to challenge the use of the christian calendar.

And as I believe others have pointed out apathy may well play a part in current usage- e.g. I am not a christian but it doesn't bother me at all that my calendar is based on the supposed death of this historical figure (and btw I didn't notice if anyone pointed out that the date was figured incorrectly and is inaccurate in most people opinions relative to when the man commonly referred to as Jesus Christ died). It doesn't bother me, I just need a relative measure so I can reference events in my own life and the lives of those I love... and I would protest any proposed change in my calendar as I believe it would be very confusing for me...