Who was the most influential person to walk the earth?

[Spiderman]

Who do you think was the most influential person in History? I'm guessing Jesus...and He was born in a barn

 

[Twilight Hue]

The one who invented the wheel.

 

[Rival]

I'm not sure; maybe Moshe.

 

[BSM1]

Who do you think was the most influential person in History? I'm guessing Jesus...and He was born in a barn

More than likely he was born in a cave outside of Bethlehem. Afterwards the family found no lodging in B-city except the manger.

 

[savagewind]

Steve Jobs, but I am just guessing.

 

[savagewind]

My first guess was Thomas Edison.

 

[Flame]

Julius Caesar

 

[siti]

I have two nominations...

1. This guy - one of our homo erectus ancestors who was the first to figure out how to control fire about a million years ago. If you eat cooked food, drive a car, use electrical power...basically do anything that modern humans do every day...he has influenced your life profoundly - and probably more than you will ever know. I'm guessing he might have been born in a cave too.

2. My several billion times great-grandmother who was the very bacterium who invented sex by eating her neighbor but then retaining (rather than digesting) his DNA and incorporating it into her own. Actually, the story might be slightly apocryphal (though it is a plausible hypothesis), but the fact is that there is, among our direct ancestors, an organism of some kind that was the first to perform sexual reproduction. I think that was a pretty influential move.

 

[RedDragon94]

Was it Nietzsche who introduced us to moral relativity? If it is him that's where I cast my vote.

 

[Sapiens]

Likely Mao Zedong

.

 

[psychoslice]

Probably the Buddha, I don't believe Jesus was a real man and i don't think Muhammad is anywhere near it.

 

[LuisDantas]

Muhammad.

By creating a doctrine that would be destined to establish an unsolvable passive-aggressive relationship with Christianity, he may well have been decisive in lending both, and even monotheism itself, a lease in life and a degree of influence well beyond their own merits.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

Who do you think was the most influential person in History? I'm guessing Jesus...and He was born in a barn

Yes, I think he has that title pretty well wrapped up at this point!

 

[Spiderman]

Likely Mao Zedong

.

And he had how many of his own people murdered?

 

[siti]

And he had how many of his own people murdered?

How is that relevant to the level of his influence? I didn't see you objecting to the inclusion of Moshe, Julius Ceasar or Muhammad - is that because they mostly had people other than their 'own people' murdered instead?

 

[Spiderman]

How is that relevant to the level of his influence? I didn't see you objecting to the inclusion of Moshe, Julius Ceasar or Muhammad - is that because they mostly had people other than their 'own people' murdered instead?

Not relevant to his influence, but I am curious lol . He sure did butcher an enormous amount of his own people

 

[siti]

"Mao's responsibility for the extinction of anywhere from 40 to 70 million lives brands him as a mass killer greater than Hitler or Stalin, his indifference to the suffering and the loss of humans breathtaking" ~ Jonathan Fenby, Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present. (2008)

Most of these were not murdered though but died of starvation and malnutrition during the "Great Leap Forward" as Mao tried to propel China's agrarian economy rapidly to an industrial one.

 

[Augustus]

"Mao's responsibility for the extinction of anywhere from 40 to 70 million lives brands him as a mass killer greater than Hitler or Stalin, his indifference to the suffering and the loss of humans breathtaking" ~ Jonathan Fenby, Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present. (2008)

Most of these were not murdered though but died of starvation and malnutrition during the "Great Leap Forward" as Mao tried to propel China's agrarian economy rapidly to an industrial one.

Does that make him seem much more of a sympathetic character?

"While only a few million were directly murdered (and more tortured, humiliated made homeless, etc.), most died of starvation and malnutrition during China's massively incompetent agrarian reforms as Mao looked on in indifference and continued to stuff his fat face at banquets."

 

[SethZaddik]

Who do you think was the most influential person in History? I'm guessing Jesus...and He was born in a barn

This is not to debate the greatness and influence of Jesus (p), who influenced my choice for most influential person ever.

The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s) started the closest thing to ever exist that could be called the "Kingdom of God" that Jesus (p) spoke of, had the power of a Caesar and Pope as well as the influence of a Prophet and ruled justly, letting all religions of the day co-exist as long as they didn't break peace treaties (which happened to the early Muslims a lot, people would make peace only to gain a tactical advantage but it failed miserably) and working men pay a tax, Muslims also had to pay a tax that may have been less but it worked and kept the peace.

Within 200 years of his (Mohammed s.a.w.s) death Islam ruled from Spain and N. Africa to China and India's borders, rivalling the once glorious (before Constantine ruined it) Roman Empire in every way, surpassed it in many others.

Europe plunged into the Dark Ages at the same time Muslim Spain was a thriving cosmopolitan area with schools, hospitals, a metropolis of peacefulness that had Cordoba as a jewel of a city as its most important, Europe that is.

Jews weren't persecuted and Christian, Sabaean, Magian(Parsee) all lived with them wherever they existed together in the Islamic Empire.

And it was not a "by the sword" conquest-made Empire, its success was due to Diplomacy and strength, a tolerant system with equitable laws for men and women (Islam) that believes "there is no compulsion in religion" because the Qur'an says so, literally and word for word.

People converted if they wanted and most did but not all, Islam was enough like Judaism, Christianity and even Zoroastrianism that conversion was not a huge change and Islam is easy to practice but has Sufism and other sects with more complex teachings and practices if you wish.

For the time it existed, from the Prophet (s.a.w.s) until the Crusades of yesterday and today's bombings of civilians, before propaganda successfully turned the more gullible against Islam and making it synonymous with evil by fundamentalist fanatics.

And maybe even still:

Mohammed (s.a.w.s) is the most influential person in history.

For the better.

 

[Augustus]

And it was not a "by the sword" conquest-made Empire, its success was due to Diplomacy and strength

"And because the ambassador was so polite and charming, the Persians simply invited the Arabs to take over their country."

I agree Muhammad was one of the most influential people though. It's probably between him and Jesus/Paul and who you favour tends to be a bit subjective after that.