What year are we really in?

After looking to find out how BC and AD were determined, and how people knew what year it really was, I came across this article.

Keeping Time: The Origin of B.C. & A.D.

Some things that I found interesting are as follows:

Dionysius devised his system to replace the Diocletian system, named after the 51st emperor of Rome, who ruled from A.D. 284 to A.D. 305. The first year in Dionysius' Easter table, “Anno Domini 532,” followed the year “Anno Diocletiani 247.” Dionysius made the change specifically to do away with the memory of this emperor who had been a ruthless persecutor of Christians.

Dionysius never said how he determined the date of Jesus' birth, but some authors theorize that he used current beliefs about cosmology, planetary conjunctions and the precession of equinoxes to calculate the date. Dionysius attempted to set A.D. 1 as the year of Jesus Christ’s birth, but was off in his estimation by a few years, which is why the best modern estimates place Christ’s birth at 4 B.C.

According to Charles Seife in his book "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea": “To Bede, also ignorant of the number zero, the year that came before 1 A.D. [sic] was 1 B.C. There was no year zero. After all, to Bede, zero didn’t exist.”

However, zero did exist; our modern conception of zero was first published in A.D. 628 by the Indian scholar Brahmagupta. The idea would not spread to medieval Christian Europe, however, until the 11th to 13th centuries.

Rationales for the transition from A.D. to C.E. include (1) showing sensitivity to those who use the same year number as that which originated with Christians, but who are not themselves Christian, and (2) the label “Anno Domini” being arguably inaccurate, since scholars generally believe that Christ was born some years before A.D. 1 and that the historical evidence is too sketchy to allow for definitive dating.

In bold are the things that have me wondering. Even if you try to date the age of the Earth, there's a 50 million year margin of error. So with inaccuracies and zeros, and no zeros, and making the change to forget about an emperor, etc., how exactly can we accurately determine what year we're truly in?

Is this really just the year 4,540,000,000, is it 2016, 2018, 2500? How do we know?

Disclaimer: This isn't meant to be a flexing contest between believers and non-believers, just the accuracy of what year we're supposed to actually be in.

I always wondered what "year" it actually was in what we now call the year 100AD or 100BC.

Does it matter?

Personally, this is the year 51

a reply to: LSU0408
There is no such thing as the "real" number of a year. They are conventional labels adopted for the sake of convenience.

The absence of a "zero" year is not just about whether people understood the concept.
The best way of putting it is that Jesus was notionally born at "point zero", midnight on December 31st. Purely for calendar-calculation purposes.
1 B.C.means "the last twelve months before the moment when Jesus was born"
A.D. 1 means "the first twelve months after the moment when Jesus was born".
On that basis, there is no need for the calendar to contain a "Year Zero".

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: LSU0408
There is no such thing as the "real" number of a year. They are conventional labels adopted for the sake of convenience.

The absence of a "zero" year is not just about whether people understood the concept.
The best way of putting it is that Jesus was notionally born at "point zero", midnight on December 31st. Purely for calendar-calculation purposes.
1 B.C.means "the last twelve months before the moment when Jesus was born"
A.D. 1 means "the first twelve months after the moment when Jesus was born".
On that basis, there is no need for the calendar to contain a "Year Zero".

Pretty much this.

a reply to: LSU0408

or the jewish year,
Wed, 12 April 2017 = 16th of Nisan, 5777

We are in the first year of the reign of the Donald .

a reply to: the2ofusr1
"Anno Donaldi". A.D. 1

we are at a moment in infinity time is a man made construct

a reply to: LSU0408

then there is the muslim date,

Wed, 12 April 2017 = 15th Rajab, 1438hWednesday

a reply to: hounddoghowlie
Anyone know the Chinese date? Apparently it's the Year of the Chicken.

Stardate -305721.465404617

a reply to: LSU0408

here's something you might like,
Convert A Date

a reply to: DISRAELI

check the site i just posted

I'm a huge nerd for all things "time". of all systems put in place to allow us to process the world, time is the most (un)real and fascinating of all.
great post!

a reply to: DISRAELI

they didn't list it that i saw but i found this.
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The Chinese year 4715 begins on Jan. 28, 2017

a reply to: LSU0408

It does not matter how we choose to keep track of time or what we call the unit of measure. We could restart with a new calendar today making it year one. Chinese calendar is different and people still follow that. So in short any calendar we create won't be accurate because there is unknown variables like when the earth was created for one. So we have to pick an arbitrary date to start counting now the BC method has come in handy because as we discover fossils etc we can always go back further in time without affecting our current calendar.

So your argument isnt so much that the calendar is wrong as it is that you believe the method it was created is flawed. But if everyone uses it to keep track of time it doesnt matter if its creation was flawed and the wrong date chosen does it?

So do we start dating once the earth was fully formed or from the moment that two pebbles came together and started spinning?

All you need to know is when your kids birthday is/are. Don't forget your wife either.

a reply to: olaru12

and your anniversary, and valentines day. God help a man that forgets those.