The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Split] The Single Most Influential Person in History
FirstComradeStalin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
FirstComradeStalin wrote:FirstComradeStalin wrote: »poshniallo wrote: »Two, if we are going to accept Jesus as a historical figure, then what kind of historical figure should we be thinking of? A divine being who created miracles? A normal bloke who wasn't important? A spiritual but otherwise human figure?
We should look at Jesus as the single most influential figure in the history of mankind, and that's all that matters from a historical standpoint.
What about all of those other really important religious figures? Moses, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.
It's pretty simple, really. The most influential culture in the world in terms of where we are right now and why is Western culture. For most of the past 2000 years, the thinking and actions of that culture has been shaped the most by Christianity, which is based off of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Whether he is real or fictional, he is the single most influential figure in the history of mankind.
If you disagree, name someone who has had more profound influence on our situation today. Just one.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100Hart decided to choose Muhammad over Jesus or Moses despite the fact that Islam was not the largest religion and that it was from a distant part of the world from where he lived. Hart attributes this to the fact that Muhammad was successful in both the religious and political realms.
Personally, I would've gone with one of the Greeks. Generally speaking, it was really their teachings which were preserved by the Islamic world and then acquired by the Crusaders that launched Christian Europe out of Dark Ages and into the Renaissance and eventually the Enlightenment Age. I imagine Christianity was less an inspiration and more an obstacle for rational thinkers to work around at that point.
I'm still sticking with Jesus. He didn't have direct political influence, but Christianity was the inspiration for numerous wars that have a larger impact on our world than those influenced by Mohammed. And the Crusades can be indirectly attributed to both Jesus and Mohammed, which you would argue as the important catalyst to Europe's revival.
Even having to think your way around Christianity to create our modern ideas would imply that Christianity has some influence on the way those numerous ideas espoused by various thinkers came about.
That list kind of sucks anyway. I mean, I have no idea how Charles Darwin isn't in the top 15. And how Buddha is #4, or Columbus is #9.
Basically, I believe that Jesus Christ is the single most influential person in history. The key thing to remember here is "single". That is, if this guy didn't ever exist in any form, the world would be more different than if the same thing happened to anyone else.
I'm interested to see how this debate may pan out. I think the strongest other contender for this title would be Mohammed, and while I don't really know the arguments in favor of him I really like Isaac Newton.
So, who do you believe is the single most influential person in history, and why?
FirstComradeStalin on
0
Posts
Simply impossible
Probably the dude who invented the wheel, I dunno
Whoever decided to fuck that mutant that was standing on its hind legs and had a big juicy brain.
I'm just banking on future accomplishments though.
If so, god has it pretty easy.
I don't know, Alexander should be pretty high up there. Broke up a massive empire, massive cultural infusion, hellenic civilization.
Whoever lived longest ago hed the biggest influence, but if you mean who pushed things really far in a different direction or whatever then I think ... Jesus or Mohammed, Alexander or Marx. Whatever, i'll go with marx as his single influence has been more profound while christianity is not so much Jesus as Peter, Abraham, etc. Communism is mostly just Marx.
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
I read a list similar to Hart's back in highschool that had the guy who invented the printing press as #1.
But I seem to remember there were some pretty shitty additions to that particular list.
Like Oprah.
Stephen Colbert on that list? :P
And did the list Gutenberg or "some chinesse dude" who invented it before him?
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
His scientific and cultural legacy lead directly to the Enlightenment.
Which is the solution to almost all of the world's social ills, if only its progress could continue, unabated.
I'll be fine, just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it.
If someone introduced something to the world that would have eventually been discovered, what matters is how long it would have taken if this person hadn't done it.
For example: Ts'ai Lun created paper in the 2nd century. Even then, his invention took until the 12th century to spread to Europe. It probably would have been very long until someone else came up with something comparable, mainly because of the level of technology during those times. Note that this is subjective, hence the debate.
On the other hand, guys who just stole and reworked inventions such as Edison.....not so much.
second
Shogun Streams Vidya
I'm glad I'm not the only person who was thinking this.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Mario Strikers: 266395 286788
Like games/movies/other awesome stuff? Check ouy my blog: http://freakinawesome.wordpress.com/
So I guess Newton is out?
Although, other than calculus, were all his other discoveries also about to be simultaneously discovered?
If you're going to go that route you probably want to say Francis Bacon, the scientific method guy. Enlightenment essayists were pretty much just applying a scientific state of mind to philosophy. But you could say Bacon was thinking like that because he was born during the scientific revolution, And your could say the scientific revolution was inspired by the philosophers of the Renaissance, And you could credit the beginnings of the Renaissance to the infamous trend-setter Lorenzo di Medici who made it cool to fund intellectual pursuits. And you could credit his prominence to...
One could take the point-of-view that all intellectual advances are inevitable so long as society continues to prosper and that the actual individual responsible was simply at the right place at the right time thinking with the right information the right thoughts. I'm going to quit now because this is beginning to sound like a Euro paper...
Who said something about only being able to see so far for standing on the shoulders of giants?
NEVER FORGET!
I'd totally say Al Gore though, the man single handedly invented the internet.
I think he would come second to whoever realized that those seeds that fell on the ground turned into new plants. Agriculture>the wheel.
Though Pottery is better than Animal Husbandry.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
1. Built the largest Empire the world has ever seen.
2. Defeated every army he faced.
3. Killed millions.
4. Was a snappy dresser.
Newton shouldn't be out, that someone else could have done it doesn't change that he was the one that did it and presented it to the world, he'd be my pick.
Certainly the most important post-Rome figure in world history, I'd say.
This one is simpe, Christopher Columbus. His half assed attempt at a shortcut, led Europe to the "New world". Rife with natural resources and indinous peoples to wipe out. If it wasn't for him the rise of the most important country in the history of the world, the United States of America, would never have happened. From sea to shining sea baby.
5. Established trade and communication lines from East to West.
6. Formed innovative battle strategies still studied by modern military tacticians.
7. His empire spread the Black Death into Europe, killing a third of the population.
I'm pretty sure that had considerable repercussions on Western civilization.
EDIT: Along with LibrarianThorne, that's three for the Khan. Are we keeping score?
It's also a pretty good one, since Hitler was the driving force behind one of the most world-changing chain of events in recent history.
However this is a silly discussion because there are countless individuals without whom human history would be vastly, vastly different. I don't think it makes much sense to try to put one over another.
The Siberian Asians did not lead Europe to the New World.
Except that there is no Christianity without Jesus.
nice!
Don't put the cart before the horse.
I think a lot of credit goes to Gavrilo Princip, actually...
But even that's debatable.