And they could've just said "BC" stands for "before the common era." Fuck it, why not? And make up some other meaning for AD, so we can just hand-wave a non-problem.
This is the date system we use. We're not switching. It's rooted in a religiously-venerated dead guy. Get over it. It's not even accurate to that specific guy. They already fudged it all over the place a thousand years ago.