The Future of Time

"And he (the "beast") shall think to change times and laws:" Dan. 7:25.

Why would anyone want to change times? The Catholic Church "changed times" when they substituted Sunday for Sabbath as the weekly day of worship. They did this based upon their claim to possess authority that supersedes the Bible, and in effect the authority to overrule God. Their reasoning involves the belief that Christ rose on the first day of the week and therefore we should worship on that day and ignore God's instructions to "work six days and rest on the seventh", and "to keep the seventh day holy". In many European countries, Sunday is considered the "Sabbath" and Monday is now considered the first day of the week.
Protestant and most mainstream "Christian" churches followed the Catholic reasoning and, perhaps in some cases unknowingly, the Catholic claim to authority in changing the day. Previous Catholic authorities have ridiculed non-Catholic Christians who keep Sunday but who reject Catholic church authority, saying that the only basis for keeping Sunday is the authority of the Catholic church. (See "Rome's Challenge" at http://www.tagnet.org/lit/challenge.htm).

Beyond trying to change the order of the weekdays, men have for thousands of years modified calendars for various reasons. These included trying to harmonize a calendar with astronomical and agricultural or seasonal cycles, regulating worship, regulating trade, superstition, and vanity.

The present "Roman" calendar has been modified and revised so that it does not vary noticeably from the cycles of the stars or seasons. No one who wants to be taken seriously will admit to wanting control, being superstitious, or possessing vanity, although the Catholic church's claim to authority to regulate pagan worship predates its first contact with Christianity by 1,000 years. (See article, "pontifex" at http://www.britannica.com).

So what are the complaints about the present calendar? One web site summarizes, "the Gregorian Calendar's strict adherence to the solar cycle produces an expiring calendar every year. This requires continual schedule-revisions for many important activities, such as education. It also precludes regular divisions within the year necessary for accurate statistical comparisons. Half-years have an equal number of days only in leap-years; the year never divides evenly into quarters; the months are irregular; and neither the year nor the months can be divided regularly into weeks." Also, they complain that there is difficulty in knowing when annual events will be scheduled and that the current system is "old".

There is no indication that any of these aspects have caused wars, famine, pestilence, disease or even the heartbreak of psoriasis. But that hasn't stopped some organizations from lobbying Congress since the end of WWI to "fix" this "problem".

The "problems" are described as being the fact that the months don't always start on the same day of the week, the months are of different lengths, the year is not an even number of days and leap year is a complication. The complaints also include the fact that the days of the month fall on different days of the week and therefore people's birthdays fall on weekdays different from when they were born.

Many alternative calendar forms have been proposed, from the simple to the unbelievably complex to the downright ridiculous.

The "World Calendar" which has been copyrighted, proposes "blank" days, which would not be counted in any seven day "week" but could be observed as holidays.

Some object to changing from the present calendar for religious reasons. Proponents of alternative calendars admit that, "Religious groups obliged to worship every seven days will have a problem with off-calendar days: sometimes there will be seven days between two occurrences of the weekday they choose to worship." Many of the proposed calendars not only create a problem for Sabbath keepers but for those who desire to worship on Sunday using a seven day schedule.
How do alternative calendar proponents respond to this problem? "Many people of all faiths currently either cope with taking the day off or working on their religion's seventh day." In other words, "deal with it, it is not my problem". One suggests, "Those who insist that the seven-day cycle has to be accommodated somehow should re-consider their beliefs, . . .".
Proponents say that to attempt to design in a factor to make the seven day cycle recognizable would be "rather messy" and the inserting of "old kludges", "is not a great idea". We wonder how many realize that their Sabbath worship is an "old kludge".
Another pattern would have cycles of three days, a "triday" of work followed by a "triday" of rest or recreation.

The question of keeping track of the "seventh day" arises because the proposals include using years of 13 months, quarters of 91 days instead of months and weeks, using six day weeks, alternating months of 28 and 35 days, or leap weeks added in 5 of every 28 years. One plan calls for the year to end on a Saturday and begin on a Sunday, with these two days consisting of 36 hours each, making the year of 364 "days" and solving (sic) the religious objections. Saturday would begin at midnight, and end 36 hours later, at noon. Sunday would then begin at noon and end 36 hours later, at midnight.
Another plan calls for 61 weeks of 6 days each.

Some plans reflect a new-age, nature based orientation with the months being renamed. One list of new names includes, Roubboong, Gikial, Charwiosna, Gomnookig, Niizhbom, Sungspring, Athyorum, Umniibing, Sitieverao, Talato, Seuautum, Pungotono, Doocall, Sumiesien, Athwinter, and Onezima. The year dating would be A.H. and B.H. referring to before and after the bombing of Hiroshima. The four seasons would be divided into "quartos" instead of months.

One proposal is for a five day week called a "quinta". The year would be of 12 months which would contain 6 quinta each. One additional quinta, called the "Yule quinta" would be "outside" the 12 months, and be a "rest" period much like the "blank" days mentioned earlier and would replace Christmas. Tuesday and Sunday would be eliminated, Wednesday and Thursday would be renamed, and the other three days would remain. The fifth day would be a "rest" day. Thanksgiving would be eliminated because it is "too specific to North America", and Easter, because it is "too difficult to calculate". An additional quinta would be used as a "leap" adjustment in years divisible by 20, or once every 20 years.

The International Organization for Standards, founded in 1947, goes by the name "ISO" (meaning "equal', as in standards) instead of its initials "IOS". It determines technical standards for all technical fields (except for two which are overseen in a joint effort with IEC) for the promotion of trade. Their standards are used for credit cards, phone cards and "smart" cards.
ISO has already established a revised calendar which shows every year beginning on Monday, weeks of seven days, and no months. Each day is identified by the year, week number(W1-W52), and day of the week by number (1-7) and day of the year (1-365). March 25, 2001 is identified as 2001-W12-7 and it is day 84 of the year. Notice that Sunday has become the seventh day of the week using this calendar. Their headquarters are in Geneva, Sw.

(Source: http://personal.ecu.edu/mccartyr/isowdcal.html, and, http://wwww.iso.ch).

Proponents of alternative calendars claim that the advantages would include a shorter work week for everyone, more jobs for those out of work, and lower taxes because of fewer work hours. [Hmmmm, we wonder if a new calendar will also cure bunions, dropsey, ague, consumption, liver bile, ladies' complaints and flat feet?]
One result would be that holidays would always fall on the same day of the week. This, it is said, will help end confusion. Also, every organization's year-to-year comparison of figures between weeks, months and quarters would be more meaningful.

If time and our present society continues long enough, history will probably be rewritten. It could go something like this. In the quarto known as Umniibing, in the year 4000 (B.H)-W1-7, (which was day 7 of the year) God rested, but only because he was confused and his life lacked meaning. But man changed times in the year 56 A.H., on the date W12-7, which was day 84 in the year, but which in some countries is known as Year 1, the 6th day of Gomnookig, in the 13th quinta and and the 1st Quarto, unless the previous year was divisible by 20 in which case it is one quinta later. And the employed were reduced to a three day, "triday" work period so that the unemployed would become employed. But the five day week was soon changed to a six day week, so that the tridays didn't drift and birthdays would remain stationary. The results were that taxes went down, confusion was wiped out (except for those "old kludges" who confused the "Yule quinta" with the pentagesimal "leap quinta") and life was more meaningful.

Less confusion and more meaning to life. Who knew it would be so easy?

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Copyright M. H. and G.H. 2001. All rights reserved.