יום ראשון, פברואר 25, 2007

 

C.E.

I was looking up US government information on Daylight Savings Time (which starts much earlier, March 11, this year than ever before) and was pleasantly surprised: In its note on the history of hours, minutes, and seconds the government (NIST, to be specific) uses B.C.E. and C.E. instead of B.C./A.D.

Then I happened upon a new Christian right-wing alternative to Wikipedia called Conservapedia. In its mission statement it says:

Conservapedia is a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American. On Wikipedia, many of the dates are provided in the anti-Christian "C.E." instead of "A.D.", which Conservapedia uses. Christianity receives no credit for the great advances and discoveries it inspired, such as those of the Renaissance.

Oh, my! C.E. is anti-Christian (which evidently is the same thing as anti-American)? Perhaps non-Christian, but anti- ? Give me a break. Even by using C.E. we are acknowlegding that we share the same era with you, as defined by the arrival of your claimed Messiah. But why should we have to call it "the year of our lord," when that's not our Lord?

Not that these are the sort of people one can reason with...

But I really like the irony in this link from blogger Jon Swift:

For years homeschooled children have had to rely for all of their information on Wikipedia, which is full of dangerous ideas that homeschooling was supposed to prevent from seeping into the home. Now, finally, there is an alternative, which doesn't have any controversial ideas at all: Conservapedia. Conservapedia is based on good Christian values, unlike Wikipedia, which I gather from the name, is based on Wiccan.

Thanks to wmtc for the tip.

(I should note that wmtc stands for "we move to canada," a terrific blog by L-girl, who did just that. I have a yahoo.ca address for this blog, but that's the only part of me that is Canadian--at least so far!)

Comments:
I have been wondering where you have been, glad to see you posting.

I don’t know what to say about all of this other than, I find America to be one of the most paradoxical place on the planet. Freedom, freedom, freedom of speech unless someone thinks its dangerous. I think its great that they have something to call their own because now they have somewhere to put their energy and maybe they will spend less time vandalizing Wikipedia.

Well I will soon be in your land of the great so might as well get use to this stuff.

Anyhow interesting post so thanks for sharing.

PS I found your lost comment and its up on the blog now. Also I have written a couple of posts you might find interesting. I guess maybe that’s my way saying I might be interested in your thoughts on them, LOL.

Lastly I have been meaning to ask you what you think of Ken Wilber and his Integral Politics stuff?
 
Indeed, get used to it. Maybe we can trade places! In other words, I am not used to it, and I've been here 46 years!

Light posting because I have just been too busy getting nothing accomplished. :-)

(Who is Ken Wilber?)
 
Hey there, thanks for the link. I'm floored that anything from the US government uses CE and BCE! NIST better keep quiet about it, or they'll lose all their funding.

I find America to be one of the most paradoxical place on the planet.

I used to also think the US was paradoxical, until I stopped listening to its words and started only looking at its actions.

If you start from the premise that the words are 100% full of shit, it all looks pretty consistent and straightforward.
 
There are people who get up in arms over "CE" v. "AD".

Having said that, I think (and I stress think) that conservapedia is supposed to be a pardoy site. I haven't actually looked into it, however.
 
I like the reference to Ken wilber.

You can see some practical Integral politic in action in this post:

http://www.integralleadershipreview.stormer.us/archives/2007_03/documents/ILRMar2007-Elzamalouf.pdf
 
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