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The fact that the number is still based on the birth of Christ shows people are not pretending it isn't based on that. The term CE was adopted to lessen the implied endorsement of said religion via the terms Christ and "the year of OUR lord".

> we have to pretend like the calendar isn't based on the Christian god

I like how this could be offensive to both Christians (Jesus isn't god) and anti-Christians.

Hard to believe in this the year 2026 CE that somebody cares enough to cry about the letters used to denote the year

It's typically referred to as CE to indicate the speaker's personal lack of belief in the divinity of Jesus, that might be implied by using the term anno domini. Nobody is under any illusion about whose birth began this era.