The greatest Teachers ever.....

[Skwim]

I don't know enough about them and how their teachings were handled to give a reasonable reply. Any guessing would be stupid.

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[Hockeycowboy]

I wonder who decides that these people are somehow the greatest teachers. None of those would remotely make my list. The inspirational power and influence of people we actually know - our parents, friends, and contemporaneous teachers from school days - are far greater than any of these alleged famous ones, IMHO.

They wouldn't?
The parameter was 'throughout mankind's history.'
I'm sure your parents, friends and teachers influenced you, and that's great (I hope), but who knew them 100 years ago?
Or your parents and friends? Did they influence anyone even in your neighboring state?

Take care.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

I don't know enough about them and how their teachings were handled to give a reasonable reply. Any guessing would be stupid.

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Well, I certainly wouldn't want you to fall into that category.

Have a great day!

 

[Baroodi]

The unlettered teacher of humanity, Muhammed; what teachings and what guidance that can be compared to his teachings and guidance? Yes some extremists claim they are Muslim but Muhammed (PBUH) repudiated them when he said: they come out of the religion as the arrow emerge out of the prey, even without a single drop of blood on it; to denote how quick they leave it, without taking from it anything as the arrow pierced the prey and emerged before the squirt of the blood in its body.

 

[Kemosloby]

Matthew 7:21-23; Acts of the Apostles 20:30; 2 Peter 2:1-3

It even was going on back then: 2 Timothy 2:16-18

Yup, It wasn't Jesus changing it though. And the Apostles did their best to point out those that did. It's up to the individual to figure out who to listen to.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Yup, It wasn't Jesus changing it though. And the Apostles did their best to point out those that did. It's up to the individual to figure out who to listen to.

AGREED!!

 

[Quintessence]

They wouldn't?

Nope. How do we go about assessing something like "most influential?" To whom? Whose culture, whose history? And were they really that important or are they important because a bunch of people say they were? It seems the question boils down to a subjective popularity contest. I suppose I've never been a fan of popularity contests. It's more interesting to me to go "how did these figures impact (or not) various aspects of human culture" instead of reduce things to a chest-beating contest I guess.

I'm sure your parents, friends and teachers influenced you, and that's great (I hope), but who knew them 100 years ago?

It's interesting you frame things this way, because a major reason why none of these so-called influential people are on my list is precisely because they aren't contemporary. I don't know them, and neither does anyone else alive today. Why do we tell stories about how influential they are when they are not actually present here? Tradition? Inherent anthropocentrism? Nationalistic pride? Something else? I dunno. All I know is that so-called famous/influential people hold little meaning for me, personally. I'd wager the same is probably true of most of the rest of us, if we stop and think about it. Yet we still call them influential... because that's just the story as it is supposed to be told.

 

[David1967]

And here I was thinking the greatest teacher was the one who taught on how to use fire.

Yes , his name was Ogg.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

I would Buddha and Jesus were both great teachers. That said...

There are so many teachers that I've encountered in my years on this planet, so many experiences, so many lessons learned, it's hard to pick out just one greatest or even a few. With each encounter was and is a new learning experience, regardless of the intent of who I encountered, and whether they were or are right or wrong. With each Google search inspired by something I heard, experienced, or read was a new learning experience.

In wading through all of these experiences and scrutinizing and discerning which ones to accept as truth, and which ones to discard or disregard, I would say that, at the risk of coming off as arrogant, my greatest teacher has been me.

 

[David T]

In my opinion:

Missed Lao Tzu from the list, author of the Tao Te Ching.

Yeshua's teachings are not accepted by most, as his words are within the Synoptic Gospels; John, Paul, and Simon the stone (petros) are contrary to his teachings, so a majority doesn't follow him.

Buddha's teachings have been used to be contrary to Abrahamic/Hindu religions, and so miss that Buddha refers to the universal mind (God), the heart (soul) being something we connect within to find Nirvana, plus they don't believe in Heaven and Hell, when these are within the Lokas.

Muhammad within the Quran says that we're not to make distinction among the religious text globally, and yet Muslims think they're only meant to read one book, and ignore the rest. Thus many Muslims have no understanding the Quran refers to the golden/Messianic age, and thus many have confused Heaven as a physical place.

A guesstimate if we take the whole of their teachings, create a percentage of concepts not followed, we can create a value to compare each...

• Yeshua has at least 75% not followed.
• Buddha has about 35%.
• Muhammad has about 25%.
• Moses has 50%+ not followed.
  
• Lao Tzu has most followed.

I like the lau tzu inclusion. That's a heavy duty contemplative text.. He is one of three ancients who lived at the same time that I gravitate towards era where Buddha and in particular heraclitus are the other two.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Nope. How do we go about assessing something like "most influential?" To whom? Whose culture, whose history? And were they really that important or are they important because a bunch of people say they were? It seems the question boils down to a subjective popularity contest. I suppose I've never been a fan of popularity contests. It's more interesting to me to go "how did these figures impact (or not) various aspects of human culture" instead of reduce things to a chest-beating contest I guess.



It's interesting you frame things this way, because a major reason why none of these so-called influential people are on my list is precisely because they aren't contemporary. I don't know them, and neither does anyone else alive today. Why do we tell stories about how influential they are when they are not actually present here? Tradition? Inherent anthropocentrism? Nationalistic pride? Something else? I dunno. All I know is that so-called famous/influential people hold little meaning for me, personally. I'd wager the same is probably true of most of the rest of us, if we stop and think about it. Yet we still call them influential... because that's just the story as it is supposed to be told.

How important, would you say, was George Washington to the USA becoming a country? Yet no one today knew him. You think he's had an influence in your life, even now? That's what I meant.

Take care, my cousin.

 

[blü 2]

three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Euclid
Plato
Archimedes

They are the most eminent representatives of schools of thought that lead directly to Western civilization and the descendants of their teaching give us our maths, our rational thinking, and our physics.

The actual list is a lot longer, and includes Homer, Aristotle, Eratosthenes, Sophocles and so on.

 

[whirlingmerc]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

Jesus is sometimes seen as merely a great teacher, but since he spoke of judging the world , raising the dead and returning in the cloud... not to mention ..... being greater than the temple, solomon and Jonah, there is more to him than merely a great teacher.... so in that regard he is misconstrued if thought of as merely a good or greatly good teacher.

Zechariah: A Dreamscape Pointing to a Man Called Branch

 

[Hockeycowboy]

I would Buddha and Jesus were both great teachers. That said...

There are so many teachers that I've encountered in my years on this planet, so many experiences, so many lessons learned, it's hard to pick out just one greatest or even a few. With each encounter was and is a new learning experience, regardless of the intent of who I encountered, and whether they were or are right or wrong. With each Google search inspired by something I heard, experienced, or read was a new learning experience.

In wading through all of these experiences and scrutinizing and discerning which ones to accept as truth, and which ones to discard or disregard, I would say that, at the risk of coming off as arrogant, my greatest teacher has been me.

I appreciate your reply; however, I was asking whose teachings have been twisted the most?

Do you have an opinion?

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Euclid
Plato
Archimedes

They are the most eminent representatives of schools of thought that lead directly to Western civilization and the descendants of their teaching give us our maths, our rational thinking, and our physics.

The actual list is a lot longer, and includes Homer, Aristotle, Eratosthenes, Sophocles and so on.

Thanks for adding these other teachers. But my main question was regarding who’s tenets have been most misconstrued?

Do you have a thought on this?

 

[Dawnofhope]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

Great questions.

All three deserve to be in the top three. I would add Moses to the list as He laid the foundation for Christianity and to a lessen extent Islam.

All three have been majorly misrepresented by both their followers and critics alike.

 

[blü 2]

who’s tenets have been most misconstrued?

The only one I know enough about to comment is Jesus, and parts of his message have been wildly misconstrued.

For example, Jesus expressly and repeatedly denies that he's God (Mark 12:29-30; Matthew 20:23. 24:36; Luke 18:19; John 5:19; 5:30; 6:38; 8:42; 10:29; 17:3; instead he worships Yahweh as his own god (John 20:17), and is nothing more than Yahweh's agent on earth, and any power he has is not his but given to him by Yahweh (as in the citations above).

The Trinity is in fact a later solution to an ancient political problem (how to promote Jesus to worshipful status while staying monotheistic) which is not only unsupported in the NT but expressly rebutted by it.

It doesn't help either that the Trinity doctrine is admitted to be incoherent, politely called 'a mystery' on that account by at least the RCC and Anglicans/Piscos.

 

[Jedster]

Thanks for your honest opinion, i appreciate that.

I have a reason for raising this question. I feel the same way, that Jesus' words have been twisted a lot more than the others. I mean, how many different sects in Islam? 60-70? Or Judaism? About the same, maybe?
But in Christendom, there's -what? - over 42,000 different Christian sects?!!

Why so huge?
I'll give my opinion later.

i think 42000 is OTT. How do you arrive at this number?
I have travelled the world a fair amount and met several types of Christian.
However when I first went to visit the USA, I was amazed by the number of TV channels run by Christians.
So my question is, excluding the USA, how many different sects are there?
I am genuinely curious.

 

[Grandliseur]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

Killing in the name of Christ has not lacked warriors. Despite this, his message was one of peace and not of the taking of power over the nations in his name as has been done. So in peace we come to cut you in pieces, seems the new message once the Catholic church came into power.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I appreciate your reply; however, I was asking whose teachings have been twisted the most?

Do you have an opinion?

I apologize for overlooking this question in your OP. I have an opinion practically everything.

In my opinion, all of their teachings have been misconstrued or twisted to some extent, as, in my experience, it is the human condition to take what is taught and amend it to fit one's personal agenda.

I suppose I would measure the quantity of misconception by the amount of denominations or sects there are under a specific teacher, and the variance of adherence, beliefs, and practices under each denomination or sect. I would also incorporate how many variations or versions there are to religious texts written under a specific teacher.

Using the measurements listed above, of the three teachers you listed in your OP, it would appear that Jesus' teachings are the most misconstrued.