Adopting a better calendar/dating system

This is not a serious issue so I hope it generates more clear debate, than heated debate.The deal is that our (by which I mean the western world's) current calender/dating system is based on Xtian mythology and while not intolerable to continue using, does seem somewhat clunky and pointless.One of the worst traits is the BC/AD issue. This artficially divides history into two separate timelines. One runs backwards and the other forwards. I cannot fathom the reason to have such an odd dating system, even if I was xtian, because it makes understanding Old Testament dates more inaccessible.Why not switch to one of the older dating systems such as the Chinese or Jewish calendars? Both would allow us to start our calendars conveniently enough around the time that written history actually began. If we were to have a split timeline at the point of "before written history"/"after written history" it would make sense.I believe a straight linear timeline with a starting point at the beginning of civilization would not only help with remembering dates, it would dissolve a cognative dissonance created by the much later starting point. Humans will seem more to be starting civilization and then moving through a very long history, rather having existed for only 2000 years then disappearing back into some cloud of darkness known as BC (as if nothing important occured during this much longer period of time).Despite being totally nonJewish I'd have no problem accepting their calendar as it seems perhaps more accurate than the Chinese. But this could be debated.Does anyone else see the value in shedding our current Christ based calendar/dating system?------------------
holmes

I would be fine to remumber, but the jewish calendar is lunar and that would not do! Too confusing.I don't think that the actual starting date is all that important. I'd much rather see the calendar rationalized in some way.Say 13 4 week months with a spare day. We could make one of the religious groups happy by letting that day be special too them.Though the politics of it would not allow that to happen. It could be that the renumbering could be used as a political tool if we moved the whole calendar away from any specific bias (Jewish dates would not work for that, Chinese might).
So we could get all positive historic dates and a half way rational calendar at the same time.The 13 month is nice with even weeks in a month and only one spare day. It messes up quarterly reporting though. (have you noticed that one "wonderful" feature of the current calendar is that each quarter is a different number of days long? )

I was actually unconcerned about how to break up the months, but that is an interesting issue that would come up.While I would have no problem with the year outlined above, I'd like to know if that takes care of leap years? Or would we still have an extra day every four years.Probably the biggest problem you'd face in implementing your idea is superstition. Oh my God 13 months????? So many things would be blamed on having 13 months, and people would worry for an entire month every year (rather than the odd Friday the 13th).To be honest I don't see the problem with quarterly reporting. If anything it could be turned into a convenience. Like have all economic "quarters" be considered 3 months long except the first. The first would be 4 months. And reporting for the year could be done one month in to the first quarter, rather than right at the end of the last quarter.That would create a sort of overlap for yearly reporting and remove any reason people are late with their reports. You start at the end of the last quarter and have a full month to get everything compiled.While I see that using the Jewish dating system (even if not the lunar schedule) could create a bias (like they are right in their theology), in a fight I'd rather switch to that bias than keep the current Xtian one which makes no sense.I suppose I'd be happier with the Chinese beginning date. The only problem is it seems more mythical than the Jewish starting date (minus the first 7 days in Genesis of course).------------------
holmes[This message has been edited by holmes, 10-01-2003]

Let's do Julian Dates, like some astronomers use. They're just consecutively numbered days since the (mythical) founding of Rome. Today is JD 2452914.

No dating system that we could come up with will be that great, so I'll just stick with what we have. There are serious problems, unless you want to give up on trying dates in with an Earth Year, an Earth Day, or an Earth Month. The moon is moving further away. The Earth's rotation is slowing as a consequence. The year is changing too, although I forget in which direction.Scientists ended up having to standardize the second relative to the natural resonance frequency of the cesium atom (9192631770 hz) so that they'd have something that is constant.------------------
"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."

Erasing all the evidence which shows the Bible to be credible get's tough, doesn't it? You go the the Jewish calendar and you get back to a reminder of the Garden of Eden. You try to go beyond that and nothing recorded happened from allllll that looooooong aleged history of mankind. You go to the Christian one and you see Jesus. You scratch your head to think of something better and nothing as good comes up. Now ain't that just awful? [This message has been edited by buzsaw, 10-01-2003]

Um, Buz, I just explained why *no* calendar is going to be that accurate - because all of the things that we humans base time on are not constant.------------------
"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."

Buz, Not at all, we could make next year year zero, Pol Pot did it. Why not? Or we could base it on N.E Other religion.And arguing for biblical credibility based upon that religions dating method is a circular argument, not evidence.Mark

It is interesting how people view time and dates. The fact is we have at least two major ongoing calendars (three if you count the Jewish one).Many people in the west act like everything other than the Xtian calendar is some funny novelty act, like they aren't real calandars, but that's just not true.People also seem to feel (I think this is what Rei was getting at) that it is somehow difficult to change the calendar system, or that we can't come up with something better. This is also not true.If anything, history has shown that calendars and dating systems get changed all the time because eventually something crops up which isn't handy. This has happened a multiple of times for our current calendar. Someone can correct me but I think the last change was to suddenly skip a number of days back in the 1800's.It may be a slight effort, both physically and mentally, but IMO opinion there could be some real value in removing the "wrinkle in time" that has been created with the Xtian calendar.I'm not sure why Buz thinks this has anything to do with removing religion. He might notice that I was perfectly willing to accept the Judaic dating system. As Ned pointed out there may be political issues that stem from accepting yet another religiously affiliated system, but that doesn't mean everyone voting against it is doing so for religious reasons.In the end, time and dates are manmade. As mark pointed out we could just as easily start year 0 tomorrow. This is the same bit of arbitrary thinking that went in to the calendar we are now using (note to Buz: year 0 was backdated to a date that in actuality has no accuracy to Jesus' birth or life).I read an interesting book in college by Eviatar Zarubavel (or pretty close to that) called Hidden Rythms. It was a sociological analysis of time and its role in culture. Ever since then I could never look at time the same way (more profound than Einstein's physical shattering of time).And it began to grow on me that perhaps conceptions of time ought to be smashed up a bit so as to restructure it for greater utility, especially in viewing the rise of human cultures as a linear progression with much deeper roots.For people like Buz, you can still mark the calendar with important dates as a next step up in civilization.Ah, but it seems maybe my idea is not in favor yet. That's okay. Just running it up the flagpole.------------------
holmes

Come on people, get with the program! Decimalisation is the order of the day!

Wounded King writes:

quote:

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Come on people, get with the program! Decimalisation is the order of the day!

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Great...now I have that SNL sketch going through my head about the metric calendar!"Get a college education in 10 metric weeks!"------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

A "slight effort"? My dear Holmes, given the utter inability for 99.9% of the American public to grasp the elegant simplicity of the decimal system (it's a hell of a lot easier to divide by 10 than 12, for instance), I think you may be severely underestimating the difficulties faced by such a radical change as calendars.

I reckon we should adopt a Calander with one fixed year, this one.Thus we have N-3 for yr 2000, and N+34 for 2037.

Most folks have no problem with our present global calendar system. It's worked fine for centuries. Bibliofobicism seems to be the sole drive in this determination to revise anything and everything lending support to accredibility to this remarkable ancient book which has enlightend and blessed so many in the planet's finest cultures.Why not begin the calendar with the birth of Mohammed? After all, look what his book's done for the nations under it's inspiration and instruction. Or maybe begin with the athiestic Bolshevik Revolution. No? Well then maybe the birth of the great Buddha, Shakyamuni. Likely any of these would make you phobic people feel much better and resolve this awful need for a new dating system for the planet.

Great idea, 13 months! I propose that we call the thirteenth month 'Extrember'. To get rid of superstition once and for all, let's take an overdose by starting each month on a Sunday. That way, every month has a Friday the 13th. The left-over days can be Sundays. Thus, each new year is celebrated with a long weekend, and each leap year with an extra-long weekend. Birthdays are always on the same weekday. So is every other date. Calculations with dates become much simpler. Why didn't we think of this before?As for the starting year: let's put all our effort in finding the asteroid that will destroy our civilization, calculate its date of impact and take that as the pivotal moment in time for mankind. We can then count the years backwards. For all we know, today could be Friday the 13th of Extrember, in the year 13 B.I. (Before Impact).But then again, I suppose there's going to be a Bruce Willis, bent on ruining a perfect idea.------------------
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