2009 in the year of our Lord

It appears that the BC/AD (Before Christ / Anno Domini (In The Year Of Our Lord)) dating convention appears to be offensive to some, so they've decided to use the CE/BCE (Common Era / Before Common Era) dating system. The problem? It sucks.

This Conservapedia article best explains it. For those of you who won't touch Conservapedia with a barge pole, I'll reproduce the text here, because I can.

The term "Common Era" (CE) is an attempt to erase the historical basis for the primary calendar dating system in the Western world. "Common Era" has no real meaning, and even the origin of this term is unclear. The 1972 Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary has no entry for "Common Era." A later edition (11th) defines it as the Christian Era.

The established calendar dating system is based on the approximate birthday of Jesus, and no one disputes that. But this birth did not begin a "common" era, or any immediate change in history. The 1997 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives a date of 1889 for the origin of the term "Common Era," but there is no indication of who began using it then, and why. Some claim it is a substitute for an occasional reference to the "Vulgar Era," with "vulgar" being Latin for "common" but acquiring a derogatory English meaning over time.

Then there's a snippet which is a citation of this page, (C) Ohr Somayach International:

Viviane Prager wrote:

Dear Rabbi:

I would like to know why we say "before the Common Era" and "Common Era" (BCE and CE). I mean, why do we call it "common?" Some Jews object to it on grounds that the "C" in CE could be misconstrued as standing for "Christ." I would very much appreciate if you could help me answer their objections. Thanks for your wonderful work.

Dear Viviane Prager,

When I was a school boy I thought that CE stood for "The Common Error."

Now, 25 years and a number of common errors later, I assume that Common Era simply means "the date commonly accepted and used." But the truth is that I don't know, so I asked your question to a professor of European history. He didn't know either.

As far as I can see, CE doesn't reference anything. It is meaningless. I view this as a half-hearted attempt to shun God from society, and it's not really working. Why don't they just set another reference point, for example, Charles Darwin's birthday, or, more appropriately, his publication of the Origin of Species?

How did people date in BC? They dated from the year their king came into power, and named the king. You see this all the time in the Bible. In essence, Jesus is the last and current king, and that is why we have AD. The BC just makes it easier to reference earlier dates.

So, two things that I have to say.

Firstly, as far as I'm concerned, CE stands for "Can't Explain". BCE stands for "Before we Couldn't Explain". Because the CE/BCE rubbish is just to remove the meaning of our dating system. This is absolutely pathetic.

And secondly, I intend on making AD more blatant, and say "in the year of our Lord".

Let's face it. CE is meaningless. Vanity of vanities.