DIFFERENCE BETWEEN B.C. & A.D

Ibrahim Sa'adu a.k.a gco (B. Sc Sociology) 

B.C. stands for Before Christ, and it means the number of years before the time of Jesus Christ. That was about 2000 years ago, so the date 552 B.C. means 2552 years ago.

Some people use B.C.E. instead. That stands for Before the Common Era, and is used in order to avoid Christian references. Quatr.us feels that since this is a Christian dating system, it's a little silly to try to hide that.

Why don't we just say 2552 years ago, if that's what we mean? Why would that be inconvenient?

*Answer is, because we keep going forward in time. So if you wrote in a book that something happened 2552 years ago (or whatever), the next year the books would still say 2552, but now it would be 2553 and the year after that it would be 2554 years ago. It would be too confusing.

WHILE

A.D. stands for Anno Domini, which is Latin for "year of our Lord," and it means the number of years since the birth of Jesus Christ. That was a little more than 2000 years ago, so the date 500 A.D. means a little more than 1500 years ago.

Some people use C.E. instead. That stands for Common Era, and people use it in order to avoid Christian references. Quatr.us feels that since this is a Christian dating system, we don't want to try to hide that. There are other dating systems in the world that non-Christians use, and Common Era makes it sound like everyone should use the Christian system.