I see lots of discussion here of religion-originated words and phrases, most of which can be looked upon benignly as nonreligious in usage (i might yell "jesus christ!" if i bang my toe hard enough, but i am not calling upon the named personage -- i've never even BEEN a christian! -- any more than i am inviting sex when i say "oh fuck" or defecation when i say "oh shit." but one thing does irk me, and that is the usage of bc and ad to indicate eras. bc means "before christ." ad means "anno domini," year of lord." i don't acknowledge a christ or a lord and those terms are not used under duress (i don't yell "oh bc!" when i bang my toe). furthermore, there are actual terms that anyone may use for those eras: bce ("before common era" or "before christian era" ) and ce (without the "before" ). why are we not using those terms? they're not hard to say, nor even to remember.

g