>>Hi Joe,
>>
>>You're incorrect here. A.D. (anno Domini) is translated to "In the year of our Lord". It's marked from the birth of Christ, not death. The year of birth was 1 A.D., year of death around 30 (something) A.D.
>
>Hi. I was hoping someone would give me a Latin lesson (meaning of A.D.).
>
>So 2 A.D. is actually 1 year after the beginning. See this is my point. That is confusing. If you are born in 1990, we call 1991 your first birthdate. This is the way people think of things. Starting from 0, not 1. If you tell most people Christ died 30 A.D. and you asked how old he would have been, they'd say 30, not 29.
>
>Anyways, this is a (virtually) meaningless discussion. People consider the year 1900 to be a part of the 20th century and people consider the year 2000 to be a part of the 21st century.
>
>Hey, if you can change the minds of 5 billion people or so, fine. But, time is running out...
>
Hi Joe,

I'm not about to try that.:-)

The problem is that we tend to think in terms of a number line here, when it really doesn't apply. Think about the fact that there's no month numbered 0 in a year, nor day 0 in a month. That doesn't cause anyone problems, this, because of its scope, however does.

The term A.D., by its translation, isn't meant to convey age as you and I understand it, but rather the beginning of a period of time, as in "First year, second year, etc.". The year Christ was born would be the first year. It doesn't matter when, but rather to mark that year as the beginning.

In fact, lots of things start with one rather than zero. VFP arrays, for example. They're first element is 1, not zero. However, in C arrays the first element is 0. In VB, they can be 1, 0, or whatever the programmer specifies as the base.