Are there any of you atheists here who think that the 21st century began on 1st Jan 2000?
At 11.30 pm December 21st 1999 I rang the MET (London Police) advice line and asked the person who came on if it was the Millennium tomorrow. He said it wasn't. I then asked him when the Millennium was and he said the first of Jan 2001 ... and followed up with " ... but 99% of the people believe its tomorrow. It's best to go along with it."
In August 1999 I'd rung the BBC and asked a supervisor when the Millennium was. She said the 1st of Jan 2001. I then asked why the BBC was telling people it was 1st Jan 2000 ... she said: "We've got government permission".
I'm expecting replies to this that read:
"Does it matter?"
An awful lot of people were brainwashed with this "fake fact" ... and an awful lot of people still think that what happened on 1st Jan 2000 is proof that the 21st century began then
The BBC news told people, as Big Ben struck 12, that the 21st century had begun. Many of the newspapers a couple of days later said the same thing.
On Jan 1st 1901 the world celebrated the beginning of the 20th century. When the Daily Telegraph was asked about this they said that: "... back then the people believed the 20th century started on that date."
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No one would of gone around saying it is year "0" AD.
The abrahamic based year system did not even get widely adopted until much later.
Most people just counted winters back then, was not a whole lot of need for the term "year."
It was some time before people even figured out a "year" is 365.25 days, not 365, not 360. The rise of abrahamic religions is why much of the world considers it to be "2018" and in the interest of reducing confusion much of the rest of the world adopted it even if they do not believe in christ and his timeline.
Also realize it wasn't until the latest millenium /century did we even have a way to visualize physically the numbers flipping over, 9's to zeros.
Much of the world could not even read and write back in 1900 eithir.
When would the millenium have been without TV, Social media and facebook?
I wouldn't have known about it, except for this.
I just wonder why we're still counting years from the imaginary birthday of an imaginary god. Bring on Stardate.
I guess it's a pragmatic approach, better than the nightmare of trying to create a new calendar that everyone can agree on.
I live in Asia. They use the Lunar Ca lander here in conjunction with the Solar Calendar. You want to be messed up on Centuries, New Years, Birthdays and other BS try using two different Calendars. We tend to celebrate everything twice. Birthdays are celebrated three times. There is the Solar Birthday, the lunar birthday, and the New Year Birthday. Officially everyone is a year older at the beginning of the New Year. But wait! There is more. Officially the birth day is 100 days after the birth. You have spent 9 months in the womb + 100 days and that is your first birthday. So you are one year old at birth.
Face it, Calendars are just mankind's way of attempting to keep track of time. They are ideas that we impose on the world around us and have little to do with accuracy. Different cultures have always had different ways of doing this. No big deal.
You already answered your own question.
Your point?
rmfr
… then what followed was the attempt to brainwash the world in the run up to the Iraq War.
...and my brother's brain is still wet...he is still waiting for the end of the world thst his brethren said would happen in 2003. He says its just on hold.
@Grinseed
Sucks that your brother believes in a doomsday cult. Punchbowl jokes aside, these can be very dangerous, just from a way of thinking they encourage. These people frequently do not plan for the future, like building up a savings for retirement or a rainy day. They may also take more risks or lead unhealthy lives because, well they think the world is going to end soon.
If someone told me the world was going to end say: Winter solstice 2020, and I actually believed it:
I would quit working, spend down all my savings and assets, do lots of drugs that I know are addictive and potentially fatal to my health, ramping up ever higher in potency (and thus danger) closer to the actual doomsday. Towards the end I would run up a huge debt while partying in a penthouse of some fancy hotel with lots of drugs and partying. If I was certain I was going to die by a certain date, why not enjoy the artificial euphoria drugs offer you would not have to deal with the very nasty side effects/addiction.
Now somewhat fortunately, lots of doomsday cults tie in a "judged by god" so they can not "sin" (so vague!) Or they will screw up their "salvation." But, at the very least, most people in these cults still do not consider saving up money because they still view it has little value to them compared to saving up for retirement, that is not typically considered a sin. Then the doomsday doesn't happen, then they hit some sort of financial emergency and then its up to all sane people that do not believe in the trip to try and help out the people that did not plan ahead.
Too many of these doomsday cults, it is more like a "shortcut" to the (unsubstantiated) heaven reward, especially if they consider their current lives miserable. Combined with the rot in hell if you do not follow the precise instructions of the cult, it is quite the potent combination of carrot and stick that can work very well on vulnerable people in some of their most vulnerable moments.
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