AdamAtlas

I recently learned that Max More once proposed replacing the BC/AD year numbering scheme with PNO — "post Novum Organum", the number of years since the publication (in AD 1620) of Francis Bacon's Novum Organum Scientiarum, which first set out an empirical experimental method in systematic detail.

So the year now beginning would be 391 PNO. I really like this idea — the beginning of science, or at least a not-too-arbitrarily chosen point symbolic thereof, seems far more worthy as a reference point for dates than the beginning of Christianity.

Any thoughts on this?

I know you are probably shocked, but it is true. I am an Atheist, or "nogodnik", right here on Reddit, and I will be here to answer your questions about these strange folk. Do not be afraid.

Edit: For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, an Atheist is defined as a man who does not submit himself to the will of the gods.

Has anyone thought of this before? Are there any problems with it? Any other comments?

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A common answer to the question of why a omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent God would allow evil to occur is that he has endowed us with free will, thus giving us the ability to stray from him and choose to do evil. If this is true, I would wonder why, in addition to creating commandments that we're supposed to follow but can choose not to, God also created a separate set of rules — the laws of nature — that we can't choose to violate. Instead of giving us the Second Law of Thermodynamics, why not give us free will on the matter, just have the 11th Commandment be "Thou shalt not make unto me any ma