Most Influential Person in All History?

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So, I opened this thread motivated by this book en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100 šŸ™‚
In The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History by Michael H. Hart, we have a a ranking of the 100 people who, according to Hart, most influenced human history. Curiously enough, he rates the prophet Muhammad as the most influential person in all the human history. Jesus Christ only appears in 3rd. The book is old, itā€™s true, it was written in 1978, but I believe itā€™s not that outdated.
So I wanted to know from you, leaving our own convictions apart who would you vote as the most influential person in History (and if you want to comment, why)? šŸ˜ƒ
 
I voted other and hereā€™s why.

While many are highly influential itā€™s impossible to put one above all objectively, however for me it boils down to Jesus Christ and Paul of Tarsus. Hereā€™s whyā€¦

Who was more influential? Jesus or St. Paul?

Christ had the message, but due to His crucifixion, there was no way for Him to spread that message outside of the ears of those whom He came in contact to while He was alive, so without His Apostleā€™s Christ would have been another false prophet among many nameless ones. St. Paul was the vehicle where Christianity received her legsā€¦but none of it would have been possible had St. Paul not had a messageā€¦so who was more influential?

The Message? or the Messenger? :hmmm:

Just for laughs, the most influential person? How about the anonymous caveman who discovered fire? šŸ™‚
 
The year of our Lord 2012. You have to have some pretty significant influence to have the world calendar revolve around your birth date.
 
austenbosten said:
I voted other and hereā€™s why.

While many are highly influential itā€™s impossible to put one above all objectively, however for me it boils down to Jesus Christ and Paul of Tarsus. Hereā€™s whyā€¦

Who was more influential? Jesus or St. Paul?

Christ had the message, but due to His crucifixion, there was no way for Him to spread that message outside of the ears of those whom He came in contact to while He was alive, so without His Apostleā€™s Christ would have been another false prophet among many nameless ones. St. Paul was the vehicle where Christianity received her legsā€¦but none of it would have been possible had St. Paul not had a messageā€¦so who was more influential?

The Message? or the Messenger? :hmmm:

Just for laughs, the most influential person? How about the anonymous caveman who discovered fire? šŸ™‚
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What message would the messenger carry if there was no one to precede him?
 
By that logic, Khalid ibn al-Walid should be given the credit for most of Mohammadā€™s influence.
 
enickman said:
What message would the messenger carry if there was no one to precede him?
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Thatā€™s the point, but what good would the message be if there were no messenger to carry the message. If Paul and the other Apostleā€™s hadnā€™t had done their missionary work, Christianity would remain a small sect, smaller than Judaism.
 
austenbosten said:
Thatā€™s the point, but what good would the message be if there were no messenger to carry the message. If Paul and the other Apostleā€™s hadnā€™t had done their missionary work, Christianity would remain a small sect, smaller than Judaism.
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Good point. Though, I feel like if God wanted his message to spread, He would have gotten it out someway.
 
For myselfā€¦my-self. For yourself , how could it not be your-selfā€¦unless there is no influence. Everything requires translation no matter.
 
austenbosten said:
Thatā€™s the point, but what good would the message be if there were no messenger to carry the message. If Paul and the other Apostleā€™s hadnā€™t had done their missionary work, Christianity would remain a small sect, smaller than Judaism.
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True, but Paulā€™s influence was subordinate to Jesusā€™ influence, in that without the message of Christianity he likely would have had no noticeable impact at all. So in some sense, the actions of Paul and co. are just part of Jesusā€™ influence (even leaving aside for the sake of argument the fact that Jesus appeared to Paul) since Jesus influenced them into being messengers. You can imagine other people stepping up to fill the role of messenger much more easily than creating the message.
 
Well, after Jesus, the second should not be Eve but our blessed mother Mary and her Yes to God.
 
Adam and Eve

We wouldnā€™t be in this weā€™re in if it werenā€™t for them :D:D:D:D
 
For all those who say Eve, I am curious why you say her and not Adam. I know she ā€œledā€ Adam to sin but it was Adamā€™s sin that affected all of humanity; not Eveā€™s.

I voted before I read your instructions:o, but I might stick by my answer of Jesus. Purely speaking by the numbers, Christianity and Islam usually are said to have an equal number of adherents today, but Christianity had a 500 year head start so I canā€™t really see Muhammad as being more influential than Christ.
 
Taestron said:
For all those who say Eve, I am curious why you say her and not Adam. I know she ā€œledā€ Adam to sin but it was Adamā€™s sin that affected all of humanity; not Eveā€™s.
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You expect man to say no to a pretty woman with no clothes on, I mean come on šŸ˜‰ ;).

Ok all jokes aside I guess the reason people say that is because Eve started the chain, without her their would have been no chance for Adam to screw up everything (didnā€™t Eve also do that too my mind is a little hazy šŸ˜‰ )
 
The answer is: even if you could define influence, you would not be able to measure it. Even if you could get around that problem, in each case, each of the parents of the people mentioned by the OP must have had more influence (leaving aside God the Father in the case of Jesus) because as well as having each of the influential people, and therefore being responsible for all that influence, they must have done something else as well, and therefore had more influence, But the same is true for their parents, and so on.
 
Iron_Donkey said:
True, but Paulā€™s influence was subordinate to Jesusā€™ influence, in that without the message of Christianity he likely would have had no noticeable impact at all. So in some sense, the actions of Paul and co. are just part of Jesusā€™ influence (even leaving aside for the sake of argument the fact that Jesus appeared to Paul) since Jesus influenced them into being messengers. You can imagine other people stepping up to fill the role of messenger much more easily than creating the message.
Click to expand...
šŸ‘
 
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