XCrispyKFC Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 I am currently in a debate with a christian on another board. I'll be honest, he kinda blindsided me with a statement I don't know enough about to respond to. The debate is "Why should I believe Christianity is the one and only TRUE religion". Anyway, to my question....He mentioned that our time system is based on Jesus' life. The whole B.C.-A.D. thing. Can anyone help me out or point me in the direction of how to answer this one? Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asimov Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 I am currently in a debate with a christian on another board. I'll be honest, he kinda blindsided me with a statement I don't know enough about to respond to. The debate is "Why should I believe Christianity is the one and only TRUE religion". Anyway, to my question....He mentioned that our time system is based on Jesus' life. The whole B.C.-A.D. thing. Can anyone help me out or point me in the direction of how to answer this one? Thanks in advance Haha...I'm sorry. No really, laugh in his face. Other cultures have different calendars based on their religions, and culture. Just because western culture uses the gregorian calendar means nothing. It was created by a religious guy, and adopted by someone in power. Besides, even if Jesus existed, how does that prove that the events occured exactly as told and written down in 70- 120 AD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caretaker Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 You observe the Gregorian calendar because you need a common frame of reference with everyone else in society, and the Gregorian calendar is the calendar adopted by your society. It is not because you observe the Christian religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XCrispyKFC Posted June 25, 2005 Author Share Posted June 25, 2005 You observe the Gregorian calendar because you need a common frame of reference with everyone else in society, and the Gregorian calendar is the calendar adopted by your society. It is not because you observe the Christian religion. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That's great, but I know he's gonna respond with something like: "Well if everyone accepts it as our common frame of reference, you know that Christianity reigns supreme!" Or something like that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caretaker Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 That's great, but I know he's gonna respond with something like: "Well if everyone accepts it as our common frame of reference, you know that Christianity reigns supreme!" Or something like that... Ask him to prove how the Gregorian Calendar being the observed calendar makes Christianty the supreme religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Slayer-2004 Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 "Well if everyone accepts it as our common frame of reference, you know that Christianity reigns supreme!" That would be appeal to belief . Logical fallacy . seriously though , the calender means nothing about christianities validity . It just means lots of people bought it . Who cares ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caretaker Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Not to mention that it is simply Christian influence, that it was implimented by Christians. It does not mean that everyone subscribes to Christian belief, though. We have no need to implement a new calendar anyway, not to mention that it would be rather inconvenient to change the calendar anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japedo Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 I am currently in a debate with a christian on another board. I'll be honest, he kinda blindsided me with a statement I don't know enough about to respond to. The debate is "Why should I believe Christianity is the one and only TRUE religion". Anyway, to my question....He mentioned that our time system is based on Jesus' life. The whole B.C.-A.D. thing. Can anyone help me out or point me in the direction of how to answer this one? Thanks in advance Really? how come then no one really knows the day or Exact Year of Jesus' Birth? They celebrate his birth on the Old pagan festival day of Dec. the 25 (Known as Winter solstice) The Actual day and year are not known to anyone even the strongest minded Xtin. Secondly, BCE is also used witch stands for Before Common Era Link for More INFO ... Good luck on your debate, and at your ICON I LOVE that movie!!!! anyways On to the link. The use of "CE" and "BCE" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 The calendar itself was first adopted from the Julian calendar. Julian as in Julius Caesar. It was the Roman calendar. The Gregorian calendar was established in 1100 (IIRC) by a monk. And it was at that time or maybe earlier that they did some kind of backtracking of years to figure out when Jesus was born. The problem was that the facts and info they had was wrong. The people that are said to live at the time of Jesus, and being in ruler ship etc, don’t match history. Jesus was most likely (if he existed) born between 7 to 3 BCE, and not on 1 CE. (Notice 0 (zero) CE doesn't exist, its 1 BCE, then 1 CE) No one knew Jesus birth month, so they picked (Constantine I guess), Christmas because it’s the Winter Solstice (Pagan celebration), to replace the Pagan cults holiday. I'll try to find some references for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Jesus birth year was established in the 6 century. This is illustrated by the adoption of the birth of Christ as the initial epoch of the Christian calendar. This epoch was established by the sixth-century scholar Dionysius Exiguus, who was compiling a table of dates of Easter. An existing table covered the nineteen-year period denoted 228-247, where years were counted from the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Dionysius continued the table for a nineteen-year period, which he designated Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi 532-550. Thus, Dionysius' Anno Domini 532 is equivalent to Anno Diocletian 248. In this way a correspondence was established between the new Christian Era and an existing system associated with historical records. What Dionysius did not do is establish an accurate date for the birth of Christ. Although scholars generally believe that Christ was born some years before A.D. 1, the historical evidence is too sketchy to allow a definitive dating. From: http://astro.nmsu.edu/%7Elhuber/leaphist.html Different calendars explain on that page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Would we then have BIPUE and IPUE or? It would be so friggin long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 This is due to the control of Christianity in Europe throughout the Dark Ages (the horror, the horror). Numerous features of the Christian year got comprised into the secular calendar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sokudo Ningyou Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 You can always blindside them by asking, in response to the calender, do they then not call the days of the week Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday? Because all of our days are named after pagan gods. Does he/she then use different Christian names? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asimov Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Does he/she then use different Christian names? Jesus Day 1, Jesus Day 2, Jesus Day 3, Jesus Day 4.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sokudo Ningyou Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 God's Day of Rest for Sunday, thereby blowing the "Day-Of-The-Week" Panty market out of the water by lacking the space for the entire day except on their size 14. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Jesus Day 1, Jesus Day 2, Jesus Day 3, Jesus Day 4.... Or Earth Created Day, Light Created Day, Plants Created Day, Fish Created Day... Last Sabbath Day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mythra Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 The worst enemy a christian has is the bible itself. Use it against him. Luke 2:2 dates the nativity to the time of a Roman census when Quirinius was governor of Syria Matthew 2:1 Dates it when Herod was King of Judea. Herod's reign lasted from 37 BCE till 4 BCE Quirinius was never the governor of Syria during this period Josephus mentions a census in 6 CE. The best case scenario is that there is a ten-year discrepancy. (from 4 BCE to 6 CE) Ask this guy if we arrived at a birth year for Christ by splitting the difference. That'll make him think. The current yearly calender was started by a monk named Dionysius Exyguus in 526 CE, and it was based on an estimate of when christ was born. So, we date our calendar the way we do because of the Roman Catholic Church. They arrived at this date after much calculations and argument, just as the greeks did in determining a birth year for Hercules. (who wasn't a real dude either) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mythra Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 And the names of the days is a very good argument too. This goes back to the origin of all religions as we know them today. Back to a time when the sun, the moon and the planets were all worshipped as gods. (astrotheology) The names in the middle are the ango saxon names for the days. Sunday = Sunnan daeg = Sun Monday = Monan daeg = Moon Tuesday = Tiwes daeg = Mars Wednesday = Wodens daeg = Mercury Thursday = Thurs daeg = Jupiter Friday = Frige daeg = Venus Saturday = satern daeg = Saturn Ask him if we call it Sunday because that's the day we should be worshipping the sun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- AUB - Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Actually the year is 196 AD, (After Darwin). Ask him if we stopped using the current calendar would that make xtianity not true? And is it false in regions that don’t use the western system? And what about B.C.E and C.E.? It’s like English, it got lucky, it hegemony is not due to it being the one true language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Thursday = Thurs daeg = JupiterFriday = Frige daeg = Venus Thur = Thor, Nordic pagan god Frige = Freya, Nordic pagan god too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poonis Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 I am currently in a debate with a christian on another board. I'll be honest, he kinda blindsided me with a statement I don't know enough about to respond to. The debate is "Why should I believe Christianity is the one and only TRUE religion". Anyway, to my question....He mentioned that our time system is based on Jesus' life. The whole B.C.-A.D. thing. Can anyone help me out or point me in the direction of how to answer this one? Thanks in advance If our calandar is based upon Jesus' supposed birthday (Christmas), why does the new year not start on this day? Close means nothing. A.D. is latin for 'Anno Domini'. It is directly from the Roman Catholic Church, and no other source, and has only come into use after the fall of Rome in the late 400's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Is this Christian a Catholic or Protestant? Since the calendar was made up by the Catholic Church, then it must be the Catholic Christianity that's the right one, and not Protestant, so ask him that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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