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January 25, 2012
Question of the Moment
Posted by gerardvanderleun at January 25, 2012 5:28 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
Gee, something really special must have happened 2000 and some odd years ago. Wonder what it was?
JWM
Posted by: jwm at January 25, 2012 5:36 PM
Um, maybe people didn't give much thought to numbering the years until about 6,000 years ago, and our present system of numbering the years has an arbitrary (to a non-Christian) starting point. And people weren't around to number the years anyway, back all those millions of years ago.
Either that YouTube video is intended to be humorous, and I'm missing the point completely, or its makers are dumber than a bag of hammers.
*grump*grump*grump*
Posted by: Hale Adams at January 25, 2012 7:04 PM
The question that bugs me is this: How can the universe be billions of years old, when years are being measured by Earth's dance around its sun? Time really doesn't measure well in that light, so to speak.
As for the 2000 years old question. Nothing happened, nothing at all. Heh. Everything was either CE...the 'Common Era' or BCE, 'Before the Common Era' so as to be politically correct and inoffensive as possible when talking about the years.
Problem is, Christmas and Easter keep getting in the way of all that commonality.
Posted by: Jewel at January 25, 2012 9:14 PM
"Christmas and Easter keep getting in the way of all that commonality"
Surely you mean Kwanzaa and Solstice?
Posted by: Tom at January 26, 2012 1:58 AM
jwm - One thing that didn't happen 2012 years ago (to update from that video) was Christ's birth. The best estimate I've seen is that he was born in around 4BC.
It's extremely unlikely that he was born in December, also - to say nothing of the precise date. Best guess here is that the early Church hijacked the Roman Saturnalia, and changed the date slightly to make it less obvious what they were doing.
Tom - I favour Yule and Ostara, myself. An he harm none, do as thou wilt.
Posted by: Fletcher Christian at January 26, 2012 3:10 AM
OK, that's settled, Fletcher was there! He reports: You better listen.
Posted by: Peccable at January 26, 2012 6:19 AM
Oh, damn. MLK day. I forgot MLK day.
The dating of things reminds me of when I translate Haitian birth certificates, which always begin in this manner:
"The year Two Thousand One, the 198th year of Independence and on Wednesday, October 10th, at 10 a.m.
Appearing before Us, blah blah blah, Officer of the Civil Registry of Dépotoir-Infestés-de-Rats, etc, etc.
Posted by: Jewel at January 26, 2012 7:11 AM
Peccable - Even the most cursory Internet search reveals severe doubt about when Jesus was born - but almost every one I've seen rejects 1AD (there is no year zero, which has caused all sorts of problems for centuries).
The shepherds were in the fields at the time of Jesus's birth. Middle Eastern shepherds just don't do that in the middle of winter - and never have.
No, I wasn't there. Neither were you. And, more importantly, neither were any of the writers of the Gospels.
Posted by: Fletcher Christian at January 26, 2012 10:55 AM
Yes it is pretty well accepted that Jesus was not born in December. So what is your point?
Posted by: phil g at January 26, 2012 1:51 PM