THOSE who promote the use of BCE and CE in place of BC and AD may be well-meaning but their practice is muddleheaded. One may either approve or deplore the astonishing success of the Christian religion in overthrowing the traditional religions of the Roman empire and of Europe, but the chronology which we use in numbering from AD 1 depends on that success and has no other rationale.
That is historical fact. To disguise it by talk of a "common era"which privileges a date of no significance to other religions is to misuse the expression "common era". It is not, with all respect to Councillor Lynch, a question of fairness to other religions: it is a question of truth and intellectual honesty. No religious group should be offended by fact.
I am aware, as Mr Rodgers points out, that many biblical scholars have embraced BCE and CE but their ecumenical hearts are I fear ruling their heads. Most Greek and Roman historians have declined to follow their practice. To cover up truths about the past with pallid euphemisms in the interests of some modern agenda is in the last resort intellectual corruption.
As such it should have no place in the museums of Glasgow.
Dr Ronald A Knox, Department of Classics, University of Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article