Recorded Time (RT) (© Frank L. Ludwig)

Recorded Time (RT)

- The Objective Way of Recording Time -

Since man began recording time, his way of counting years was based on either the rule of a monarch, the founder of a religion or a political event he considered important. For those of us who have neither gods nor kings, and for the few believers who don’t feel the urge to impose their beliefs on others, this way of recording time appears annoyingly arrogant.

An attempt has been made to change BC and AD to BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era), but as the dates themselves remain identical, this calendar still focuses on the assumed birth year of Christ.

The starting point of the world’s first known calendar was the year 4241 BCE. This marked the beginning of history and should accordingly be the starting point of recording time by all those without religious biases, and this is exactly what I’ll do. RT (Recorded Time) shall indicate the years after the first record of time, and BRT (Before Recorded Time) - you guessed it - the years before it. To write a year in RT, simply add 4241 to the CE date (for example 1964 CE = 1964 + 4241 = 6205 RT).

Of course people won’t adjust to this change overnight, and in order to avoid confusion, I will still use CE and BCE in historical contexts as well as terms like '20th’ and ‘21st century’ (rather than 62nd or 63rd century). But in all other cases I will use the RT dates, followed by the corresponding CE dates in brackets, in order to promote a neutral way of recording time, as in

The Euro was introduced in most EU countries on January 1st, 6243 RT (2002 CE).

If you have a website of your own and would like to promote the use of Recorded Time, please use RT parallel to BCE/CE and copy and paste the following link:

<A HREF="http://www.franklludwig.com/rt.html">RT</A>

In the Year of History 6245,

Frank L. Ludwig