Top Five most influential

Users who are viewing this thread

Jaquestrap said:
Naridill said:
Nemesis said:
1. God
2. Jesus
3. Satan

No idea about the rest, don't feel like coming up with anything, but I'm pretty sure that those I mentioned have been very influential.

It's just that only one of them actually exists, and he's about equally influential with Muhammad.

Well if even one of them EXISTS (currently) then it certainly must mean that all of them exist. (1)

I am tired of people putting up their life heroes etc. as the most influential people, or people who made big advances in some kind of science etc. Honestly, those people are NOT influential, because it is my life-heroes that are the influential ones (2), and they made advances in the important fields of kick ass muzak, and pure-awesomeness.

(...)

3. Jesus, cause he is my best friend, and if you insult him I will castrate you and then nail you to a huge lower-case t (3), (kind of a family tradition when we take the law into our hands) (4)

(1) Uuhmm... what? So the fact that Jesus was a man confirms that God and the Devil exist? Riiiight...

(2) Sooo... you're life heroes are influential, but other people's aren't? So, because they're influential to you, they're influential to everybody? I sure hope you're joking, and, by reading the following phrases, I'm inclined to believe that. Otherwise... :roll:

(3) Again, I assume you jest. If not, well, I suppose you'll find out people don't like this aggressions.

(4)  :shock: ?!? If you actually are a christian, I cannot begin to say in how many ways that is wrong.


Maybe the entire post is meant to be a joke. If so, my apologies. Ignore this post. It's just that it struck me as sincere. If not, I stand by my comments.


 
K, so that entire post was a joke, pretty obvious. I am an actual Christian, and there were some messages in there as well. I did mean that people shouldn't put their life heroes up, but I intended the post to be humorous so I said what would be a douche thing and said that they shouldn't put their heroes up because mine were the correct ones. What I really intended to get across was that your heroes may not have affected the world more than your non-heroes. Stalin is not one of my heroes, far from it in fact, yet I admit that he is on the list rather than Lech Walenca, who IS one of my heroes. I don't think an actual list coming from me is necessary, cause from my perspective it is pretty obvious as to what kind of people should be up there (I can't really decide on the order, but a few examples would be Alexander the Great, Stalin, Hitler, Julius Caesar etc.

Just because I am a Christian, it does not mean that I cannot find vulgar, ironic, and bloody and brutal humor humorous. It may be a sin, but no one is perfect, and the irony in the whole crucifying thing is pretty obvious.

Also the person that I quoted said -->EXISTS<--. That means that they currently exist, not that they ever -->EXISTED<-- which is the word he should have used, since i am almost completely sure he meant Jesus once existed. However if Jesus is to exist now then that would mean that he actually resurrected and God and Satan should exist currently as well since if Jesus actually resurrected according to him then he was actually the son of God and that means that Satan exists as well etc.

And lastly, yes it was intended to be a joke. Please take your instincts a bit more seriously next time, cause it did kind of ruin the spirit.


 
Five most influential religious figures:

Jesus (not at all influential at the time, but has since made up a lot of ground)
Mohammed
Gautama Buddah
Confucius
Martin Luther

Actually, I'm pretty annoyed that I can't get Guru Nanak in.

Five most influential scientists

Louis Pasteur (has probably save more lives than any other scientist)
Isaac Newton
Charles Darwin
Albert Einstein (Nuclear and Solar energy both rely on his early work)
Galileo Galilei

Five most influential politically

Thomas Paine (father of modern democracy)
Shih Huang Ti (unified China)
Charlemagne (not the greatest conqueror, but shaped modern Europe)
Karl Marx
George Washington (midwife of democracy)
 
The 5 most influential historics are:

1) Thoukidides
2) Herodotus
3) William of Tyre
4) ?
5) My doggy Azor (actually I don't have a dog!)  :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:
 
In the west of Europe, definitely Julius Ceaser.  He layed down the path for all other Roman Emporers, and truly made The Roman Empire the most Powerful, influential, and overall Greatest ever.(Better then Alexanders by far.)  His legacy is definitely the most amazing ever.  He also made the Queen of Egypt his *****, who ruled the most or second most powerful the at the time.  But seriously, at the height of the Roman Empire,(which Gaius layed the path for) it was indeed the most influential ever.  It had a massive affect on medieval Europe, which in turn Had a great affect on us in America and other parts of the worlds.  Science prospered and reached places that where never before possible.  And take a look at one of their bathhouses!  All of this from the influence of  Gaius Julius Ceaser.
 
1. Jesus Christ
I am a Christian, but even if I weren't, I would still claim that Jesus Christ is one of the most important historical figures of all time. Through Jesus and Christianity, the morality and philosophy of Judaism gained a wider following, and became an integral part of western civilization. Several concepts of morality, such as reciprocity (the Golden Rule), non-aggression, and forgiveness, are immensely influential to this day due to Jesus' teachings and the widespread adoption of Christianity in a setting where previously the naked exercise of power was all the justification one needed for his actions. Christianity remains the religion with the most followers at the present day, making Jesus influential for that alone.

2. Napoleon Bonaparte
This man conquered most of Europe and implemented influential reforms in France, the most important of which was the adoption of the Napoleonic Code. The Napoleonic Wars reshaped the political landscape of Europe. French armies exported French revolutionary ideals, while at the same time the first waves of nationalism in many places erupted as a response to French occupation. Some countries, such as Venice, were wiped from the map, while others, such as the Netherlands, ended up as a monarchy. The French occupation of Spain led to the revolt of the Spanish colonies in the Americas. The Napoleonic wars revolutionized warfare, and show the first instances of countries mobilizing all their resources and people for the war effort. The legal legacy of the Napoleonic code is extensive, as it is the basis for many countries' codes. The code compiled centuries of French legal tradition based on Roman and German law, and may very well be Napoleon's most important and lasting achievement.

3. Nicolaus Copernicus
Since ancient times, most people rightly believed the earth was a sphere. What they got wrong was the belief that the earth was at the center of the universe. In ancient and medieval times, most "science" was not based upon empirical observations, but on philosophy. Copernicus, as one of the early figures in the Scientific Revolution, used astronomical observations and mathematics in order to develop his theory of heliocentrism, which has since been corroborated, with minor adjustments, by later observations. Copernicus not only introduced a theory which changed a widely-held fundamental view of the universe, but he also heralded the rise of modern science, which is based on empirical evidence rather than on cloistered philosophy.

4. James Watt
As the inventor of a practical and efficient steam engine, James Watt is responsible for the device which brought about industrialization, and, as a result, made a higher-than-subsistence living possible for most people in the world. The steam engine was used to power trains, which dramatically lowered transportation costs for both people and resources, and also indirectly created the modern concept of standardized time. The steam engine contributed to vast increases in the output of manufactured goods and mined resources, making mass production possible.

5. Johannes Gutenberg
Prior to Gutenberg, books were extraordinarily expensive, and only affordable by a small segment of the population. Johannes Gutenberg's invention, the printing press, allowed books to be mass-produced, rendering them cheaper and available to more people. Due to Gutenberg, literacy ceased to become a luxury, and common people were able to communicate and receive ideas received in printed material. The success of the Protestant Reformation, for example, was in part to the quick spread of Protestant literature. So widespread were books after this that states and churches found it necessary to ban works which threatened their authority, actions that were rarely taken in earlier times.
 
1) Prometheus. I know he didn't actually exist, but whoever discovered fire should be in here, and I don't think anyone documented that.
2) Karl Marx.
3) Bismarck. The consequences of his actions can still be felt today.
4) Caesar. People sill cite him as a case of 'absolute power corrupts absolutely', and what he did still applies today.

Just as a consolation prize:
5) Lee Kuan Yew. I'm not sure if the bugger actually has a lot of clout, but all the damned history textbooks say roughly the same thing, and even independent books corroborate that. He did show the world what one can do with grit, determination and the ability to pick the right people.
 
1. Adolf Hitler (he persuaded almost all of Germany to annihilate an entire race. Damn.)

2. Jesus Christ, 2 millenniums and the religion is still rollin'.

3. Kim Jong-il, if I remember correctly, he tied up a reporter and forced him to watch a movie with him. :lol:

4. America. Don't f*ck with us, or we'll liberate the sh*t out of you.

5. Chuck Norris. Cause I ran out.

 
1. God. Yeah, I'm not saying (s)he is real, but if (s)he is, and in whatever forms (s)he takes, then (s)he is the center of all religion, and something like 96% of the people in the world are religious.

2. Jesus of Nazareth, whether or not he was the son of God, he undoubtedly existed, and whether or not what the Bible says he did is true, Christianity is still the most prevalent religion in the world.

I could continue listing a bunch of religious figures, but that would get old, and has already been done. So, instead of putting religious figures where they should be (in terms of influence), we'll just assume that they are here, and the the ones I'm listing now really come after them.

3. Reverend James Warren Jones, aka Jim Jones. Over 900 people commited suicide in Guyana because of this guy. Apparently, they drank cyanide-laced Flavor Aid (similar to Kool-Aid, I suppose) and died while Jim Jones was in a drug haze and told them stories about his mother. He then shot himself.

4. Orson Welles. His radio broadcast upset a very large number of people, who seriously thought the planet was being invaded by extraterrestrials from Mars. If you can make some one believe that Aliens are roasting people with Heat-Rays, then you're influential.

5. Death. Death has inspired so much in so many, that it can't be overlooked. What's death? What happens when we die? Do we cease to exist, do we go to another life, are we transferred to another body? What happens? Whole religions are based around what happens when you die, and what you should do to change your fate.
 
Merentha said:
I am not denying that, but the exact same claim can be made of Islam.  Arguing that Jesus was much, much more influential than Mohammad is Eurocentrism at its best. 

Well just Today, Christians are around 33% of the population, while muslims are 20%.
And that's not considering the HUGE increase of population of the islamic nations of the last century (wich i guess would make - by a storic point of wiew - that percentage lower).

Also Jesus is important to the Muslims too, so that 20% of them should be - partially - counted in favour of him too.. while Christians don't recognize Muhammad as a prophet.

And - also - Jesus is more important to the christians than Muhammad to the muslims (Muhammad is considered a prophet, while Jesus is God)

Also there's the fact that while Jesus teachings are widely considered inspiring by many non Christians (eg. Ghandi) and are those on wich nowadays social standards are compared, Muhammad isn't someone usually quoted by non-muslims.

Anyway i find myself embarassed doing a TOP FIVE of the most influential.. since, it's just too generic..

on one hand for example you could consider Muhammad on number II due to him being the second most influential religious figure in the world.. but i find that would be just too much religious centric: Muhammad is a figure wich is very important to just one part of the world while islamic culture is not as influential as western culture (wich is a breed between Christianity and Greek philosophy) to other cultures: western culture is exported to every corner of the world: middle east, china, india, south america, pacific islands and so on..

Islamic culture is surely important PER SE, but it's something whose influence has not gone much past its borders, it's like chinese or indian culture: they surely are important, individually, but you know that each one of this culture is more influenced by western culture than others, thus amplifying a lot past its borders the influence of that one.

so i don't think it would be too much of a western-centric ranking to put in in the top five some other key western figures considering the fact that due to being western culture the most influential in the world (and just look at the language you are writing in if you don't believe it) these grow their "influence" by influencing indirectly other cultures..

anyway, without further ado, and knowing that I'd probably forgot someone.

1. Jesus Christ (without doubts)
2. Plato
3. Galileo
4. Julius Cesar
5. Muhammad

 
1. Jesus
2. Muhammad
3. Buddha
4. Karl Marx
5. Isaac Newton


.. since the post doesn't specify any areas, 'most influence' probably translates to 'most people have been influenced by'..

Thus, in terms of a single person influencing many people and regions, the above five.

 
Merentha said:
Mohammad is arguably as influential. 
*Pfff !*

If you mean influential for all the wrong reasons.
He was a pychotic desert nomad, apparently he was suffering from Acute Paranoia and he was a Schizophrenic (excuse the spelling).

Edit: needed to remove some inflammatory comments as some people were getting worked up about it.
 
ASPNX said:
Merentha said:
Mohammad is arguably as influential. 
*Pfff !*

If you mean influential as in - he killed jews because they did not convert to his "religion", influential as he raped young girls, influential as in promoted hate and violence ?
He was a pychotic desert nomad, apparently he was suffering from Acute Paranoia and he was a Schizophrenic (excuse the spelling)
Must be imitating that god of yours who murdered an entire race for not bowing on their knees and worshiping him, you know that god who killed the entire family of his most faithful follower in front of him and burned his house down just to prove Satan wrong... yes the same god who will send you to hell to burn for eternity dying slowly and being reborn to die slowly again and again for not believing the word of his low class social degenerate prophets.
 
Back
Top Bottom