Alternative Possibilities to the Christian Gregorian Calendar

BCE and CE have become a somewhat popular thing these days. Though still not in widespread use, it is seen by some as a "secular" opposition to the Christian calendar, allowing an atheist to talk dates without acknowledging the existence of Jesus. Perhaps the most likely reason that the habit of replacing BC and AD with Before Common Era and Common Era is that it seems both unnecessary and a little contradictory, as by claiming to be independent of Christian beliefs, it is still fundamentally founded on the Christian belief, down to the erroneous idea that Christ was born in Year 1 instead of the far more likely 4 B.C.

The argument is that too many people the world over already acknowledge the Gregorian Calendar, as it is referred to, and will be loathe to diverge from it, but a simple changing of the epoch name at the end would be sufficient to get the point across. Generally though, it remains to be seen why an epoch name needs to be secularized.

Contrary to this belief however, in the grand scheme of things in the Western World, the Gregorian Calendar is still relatively young - and is not universally used as some seem to think. For example, Muslims to this day do not conform to the Gregorian calendar - neither do Jews. Even the modern state of Israel uses the ancient Hebrew Calendar. The idea that the Gregorian Calendar is rooted into cultures is likewise off, as even used the Julian Calendar until 1752. Greece, likewise, held out until 1924, and Russia until the success of the Russian Revolution.

Therefore the argument that only the Gregorian Calendar is available is succinctly failed - and it becomes an issue of convenience rather than an issue of secularism. With a variety of alternative calendars available, for ease and experience, the Gregorian Calendar is elected with a simple change in some names. But this, too, fails to achieve its objective, as it becomes little more than a spiteful slight at Christians rather than its own entity, since, after all, it is still measuring time based on a Christian figure.

There are alternatives however, that could be used instead of the Christian Gregorian calendar. There has been no absence of epochs that are based solely on a secular nation that are just as noteworthy, to an atheist world, as the birth of Jesus is to the Christian.

The easiest possibility is to simply revert right back to the Julian Calendar. Still used by some Orthodox Christian nations today and the Berbers of North Africa, this was a calendar invented by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. from his time in Egypt with Cleopatra. In the grand scheme of things, its been used more frequently and at greater intervals of time than the Gregorian Calendar - starting with its foundation in ancient Rome and only fighting the last major hold out in Greece in 1924.

If the Julian Calendar isn't good enough - or perhaps too inconvenient, there are other important epochal moments in history worth noting. Here are some possibilities:

The Renaissance Calendar - This one may very well be the best option, as it marks a steady decline in church power and an increase in liberal thought. The only real downside is that religious influences directly led to it - with the fall of Greece and the influx of Greek scientists and thinkers fleeing to Italy to escape Muslim persecution. Secularists could use the writings of Dante as the beginning of their calendar, starting with 1321 perhaps, making us now in the year of 679 RE (Renaissance Era).

The Fall of Constantinople - This, like the Renaissance, fundamentally changed the world. Everything was different in 1453 - Columbus was required to go find the New World, the West was cut off from the East, Greece was in decline, Greek learning was made available to the West. This is a great example of an entirely secular (if you overlook the jihad that led to the sacking of Constantinople to begin with) event that could make today not 2007 A.D. but 547 AF (After Fall).

Rise of the Principate or Fall of the Roman Empire - What's more secular in this world than the greatest government/empire the world has ever seen? One could base an entire calendar off the death of Caesar in 44 B.C., the rise of the Principate in 27 B.C., or the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D.

World War II - The greatest battle in human history - can you think of a better event to base the calendar off of? You can call 1938 "Year 1" and we could now be in year 69.

All of these are plausible alternatives to using a Christian figure as the basis of a secular calendar.