Talk:Common Era

Choosing a datum from which to measure before, and after that has nothing to do with Christ would eliminate the undermining problem. It should be a significant event in the history of mankind that is of widespread knowledge, and is of precise timing. I suggest the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb. The abbreviation would be AT, after Trinity, and BT before Trinity. It has the added effect of reminding of the ever present danger of nuclear weapons. The bomb was detonated at 11:29:21 GMT on July 16, 1945 AD, and would be written 11:29:21 GMT on July 16, 0001 AT.

~2025-32966-45 (talk) 13:46, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

See the Wikipedia policy "No original research". Proposing new ways of doing things is not the mission of Wikipedia. Go find a billion people to follow your idea and then someone can write an article about it in Wikipedia. Jc3s5h (talk) 14:54, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Re: the comment/note to contributors It is NOT about the abbreviations CE and BCE, which have a separate article.

The article is reasonably populated by mentions of the alternative, in a sense interchangeable, meaning [Before] Christian Era .

There are thousands of articles linked to BCE and variations redirecting here, and also to [[CE|Common era]]. The respective disambiguation articles CE and BCE (disambiguation) aren't quite suitable as a replacement, since the calendar-related meanings are lost in a plethora of unrelated ones.

Is there a history of adding other meanings of the acronyms to this article? Or was the comment intended for Christian Era specifically?

Given the use of the abbreviations and the many instances in which they are linked to this article, the simplest solution should be to acknowledge said alternative meaning in the introducing paragraph. A more complex, arguably fairer, option would be having some kind of CE (year numbering) article. Cato censor (talk) 12:37, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Strongly oppose. We get enough Christian evangelist disruption as it is without providing explicit wp:coatrack and WP:POV-pushing opportunities. I find it difficult to believe that there are more than a very few instances of [[CE|Common era]] because of the disambiguation bots (and why would anyone do that?). Christian Era does exist – and redirects as it should to Anno Domini: if anyone wants to increase the coverage, that's the place to do it.

We need to keep this article to be specifically about the term 'Common Era' and resist efforts make this article say that CE really or equally means Christian Era. And maybe it does to some people but CE (disambiguation) is the place to say that, not here. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 13:14, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Strongly oppose. This article is about "Common Era". It is *NOT* about "anything with the initials CE". In addition I would like to see PROOF that at least one *author* (not reader) has written a professional paper using "CE" rather than "AD" and seriously believed readers would think they were writing a religious term and not the anti-religious term being discussed here. The various links to here from "CE" and "BCE" are from text with pretty convincing proof that the writer of the text meant "Common Era" (or at least "the abbreviation that is anti-religious which I don't remember what it stood for").Spitzak (talk) 18:10, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

See reference 72. The in-article text says, "Some Christians are offended by the removal of the reference to Jesus," whereas the excerpted text on the reference is: ""'I find this attempt to restructure history offensive,' Lori Weintz wrote, in a letter to National Geographic publishers. ... 'The forward to your book says B.C. and A.D. were removed so as to "not impose the standards of one culture on others." ... It's 2006 this year for anyone on Earth that is participating in day-to-day world commerce and communication. Two thousand six years since what? Most people know, regardless of their belief system, and aren't offended by a historical fact.'" Nothing inside of the article, nor the excerpted reference, mentions Christians being offended by the removal of the reference to Jesus.

Suggestion to add WP:SYNTH template to the section. ~2026-37878-3 (talk) 09:18, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

In this case, the appropriate tag would be {{failed verification}}. There can be little doubt that evangelist Christians oppose use of the nondenominational term "Common Era" precisely because it fails to provide the required ritual obeisance to their founder. A reader letter to NG was never a satisfactory citation in the first place.

To get to the point, I will now remove it and replace it with a 'citation needed' tag. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 10:07, 18 January 2026 (UTC)