Re: Millenium WOW - Part III

["Jerry A. Cohen" <cohen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry again for my inadvertent redefinition of A.D. (which of course 
is not a reference to the death of Jesus).  I should have stayed 
with the historians C.E. designation.  My previous remarks assume 
that the calendar begins, at the point midway between 1 BCE and 1CE 
(or for the traditionalists) 1 B.C. to 1 A.D., and that this is a 2 
year interval.  I am, in fact, ignoring all errors in calendars, 
exact date of Jesus birth, etc, since my comments were meant purely 
as a keep it simple explanation and not as an exact means for 
determining any factual event to come, such as the end of the world, 
or when the Dow will reach 10,000.  I do contend that saying that the 
first century A.D. began on 1/01/01 is no more reasonable that saying 
it began on 1/01/00 (given that we can now appreciate the concept of 
zero, and that ancient calendars were especially inaccurate, anyway). 
This does not create a year "0," it mearly creates a first year in 
which only the months are counted, ending in the year 1, which would 
be the beginning of the 2nd year.  As I said in my first WOB, its 
arbitrary, but consistent with our other numbering conventions in 
which we number accumulated quantities:  I have 1 dollar after I 
obtained 100 pennies, not after I have obtained 101 pennies.

Thank you all for the WOB, I will not respond on the digest to any 
other comments re this debate.

Jerry Cohen

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