Mindteaser for the guru's:

[MICoastieMom]

Besides, a decade has to fall within a century, and the century didn't start until 2001. Why do you think the title of the movie wasn't, 2000, A Space Oddessy?

[lorna-organic]

Okay, you win. (Even though I only have eight fingers.)

[HillsideDigger]

If we are going to throw away a year, why not throw away a century.

Since all the years in this century begin with '20' then this is the 20th. Century, right? Same logic.

[ssmagee]

somewhere classical physics or quantum physics or something in there would say diff about everything it says itself.

if there was no year one, and we are in year 2010, but have scientific items dated older then that, where does time really start counting.

[MICoastieMom]

Sorry, Digger, you lost me. Who is throwing away a year?

[HillsideDigger]

Originally Posted by MICoastieMom

Sorry, Digger, you lost me. Who is throwing away a year?

By saying the Second Century began at the beginning of the year 100 (just like some say we entered the Third Millenium at the beginning of the year 2000 or the next decade begins at the beginning of 2010) then the First Century only had 99 years.

[MICoastieMom]

If it only had 99 years, then it wouldn't be century, would it? Century comes from the Latin word centum for 100. 100 cents make a dollar. 100 centurions makes a unit of Roman soldiers.

[MICoastieMom]

Originally Posted by ssmagee

somewhere classical physics or quantum physics or something in there would say diff about everything it says itself.

if there was no year one, and we are in year 2010, but have scientific items dated older then that, where does time really start counting.

Hmmm... well, even Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock all measured time in the form of star dates. But you do bring up an interesting point; that time is relative. The way we measure time is not the way it is measured in all cultures. In the Hebrew calendar, it is 5770, and in the Chinese calendar it is 4707. The Indian calendar was reformed in 1957 to coincide with the Georgian calendar we use today, and I am not even going to attempt to explain the Mayan calendar!

Certainly time on Earth began millions of years ago, as carbon dating proves. And being creatures of Earth we mark the passage of time. Some creatures do it instinctively, such as bears, and amphibians when they hibernate; or flocks of migratory birds or monarch butterflies. Some higher thinking communities developed ways of keeping track of the passage of the seasons by using calenders. Not all comunities developed calendars at the same time, nor do they all measure time in exactly the same way. The Chinese calendar is thought to have been developed in the 14th century BCE. The Mayan calendar is believed to have started circa 1050. The Christian or Georgian calendar is based on the cycle of the Earth's rotation around the sun. The Islamic calendar is based on cycles of the moon, and both the Hebrew and the Chinese calendars use a combination of the two.

It is generally accpted in the Western world, that we use the aforementioned Georgian calendar, which didn't magically appear one day, and certainly has been tweaked along the way. Before the Georgian calendar, the Julian calendar was in use, so named because it was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE It remained in use until the 1500's, however, was used in the Eastern Orthodox church until the early 1900's and is still in limited use in some parts of Russia.

Without getting into a mind-boggling explanation of how the year 1 was set, or who set it, suffice it to say it was the best guess-imate, based on available historical writtings, as to when Jesus of Nazarath was born. The passage of time before the presumed time of His birth was known as BC; Before Christ. Anno domini is Latin for 'year of our Lord,' is abbreviated AD and grammatically correctly precedes the year. A historical event 45 years before Christ's birth is written 45 BC. A historical event occurring 45 years after Christ's birth would be written AD 45.

CE and BCE are the secular equivilents of BC and AD, and because the secular world uses the Georgian calendar, it is a way to find common ground in the geo-political world we share. CE stands for Common Era, and refers to a significant, but unnamed, event occurring in the year 1. BCE stands for Before Common Era, and also is based on that same significant unnamed event.

[ssmagee]

hmmm, very interesting. so where did dinosaurs come into play with that logic. we have bones dated before the bible

[HillsideDigger]

Oddly enough when they retroactively assigned the point Zero from which the year One c.e. was measured they seem to have missed the birth year of Jesus by 3 to 7 years and now it is figured his birth year would be actually sometime between 7 b.c.e. to 3 b.c.e..