Holocene calendar represents history

This archived article was written by: Alex Holt

Humanity has come a long way in the last 2000 years. We have seen the fall of the Roman Empire, the discovery of a new continent, the enlightenment, the scientific and the industrial revolutions, two world wars, reaching the moon and progress in equality.
However, a lot more has happened including the building the pyramids, the inventions of agriculture and astrology, the development of tools and weapons and creation of nations.
Our calendar often unintentionally forgets and distorts the big history of our civilization. Perhaps it is time to choose a new starting point or year 0 for humanity that better represents us and includes all cultures.
The best representation of our history can probably be found in the Holocene Calendar which simply moves the starting point for our year system back 10,000 years to roughly the same time as what many historians and archaeologists consider as the beginning of civilization.
This point in time was marked by the building of humanity’s first known temple in Southeastern Turkey. Following the construction of this temple was an unprecedented growth of permanent settlements across the Middle East, China, India and Europe.
This calendar is known as the Holocene Calendar. This calendar is far better at representing the history of species then the Gregorian one and comes from a neutral standpoint that could include many more groups and cultures than its counterpart.
There will be backlash to Holocene Calendar, mostly by religious organizations and people. This is because the current calendar is based on the birth of Jesus, which may be incredibly relevant to those religious groups, but less relevant to all of humanity.
The birth of civilization is probably the most relevant event in human history that every group and culture can relate to. We also don’t need to get rid of the Gregorian calendar, as it can just be reserved for religious purposes. For all official purposes, the Holocene Calendar can be used.
Using this calendar can avoid confusion for significant human events that happen in the current calendar as it would just be using increasing dates in the human record instead of first decreasing, then increasing numbers. One such example is that instead of Alexander the Great’s conquests happening in 300 BC, it would instead happen in 9700 HE.
In the end, having this calendar is beneficial and needed if we are ever to move forward as a species, but until it is adopted, enjoy the rest of your 12,017.