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It is. But again, he is to this day, massively influential. It’s one of the largest religions on the planet that had a massive impact on how history played out worldwide.
Out of these notable people - Who are the 5 most influential? (First Elimination Bracket)
- Thread starter Takes_Two_To_Tango
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And yet it was still founded by a pedophile
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Love CS Lewis next to Attila the Hun <45>
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The religious dudes are the obvious picks for sure. I think Kant is underrated though - he’s mega important in the philosophy world. Pretty fucking hard to comprehend though.
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So? Without Paul and others it would have never amounted to anything.
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It seems to me that Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha should be in a separate category. 1, 2, & 3 easily. They have 2.1 billion, 1.75 billion, and .5 billion followers currently. Add past followers and their religions' influence on world events, art, literature, philosophy (chicken/egg maybe) and no one comes close.
Next we have Attilia the Hun who counquered the world, killed so many people he changed the climate, and has 16 million decendants.
And for flavor, I picked Volta. He changed our understanding of electricity and made batteries possible. Ever use one of those?
Next we have Attilia the Hun who counquered the world, killed so many people he changed the climate, and has 16 million decendants.
And for flavor, I picked Volta. He changed our understanding of electricity and made batteries possible. Ever use one of those?
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Thos would of been a good poll if religion was out of it. How can any single man compare with the influence of Christ who/that shaped most of the world over 2000 years . Even if you leave folks like Paul, Peter , David, Moses (if you're including Buddah ........) , etc . You can't have Christ, Buddah , and Muhammed or ita not a poll.
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The influences of Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha are unquestionable. I put St Paul right up there as he was one of the most preeminent proselytizers of Jesus. William the Conqueror had a profound effect on the most influential nation of the past 1000 years.
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That doesn’t make it less influential. I mean Genghis Khan and Atilla the Hun were mass murderers but I bet you agree they are influential as well.
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That was Genghis Khan. Attila the Hun was 800 years prior and well, conquered a shit ton of Eastern Europe, all the way to Rome and had to be paid off to not sack the city. And he probably also killed so many people it affected the climate. But he doesn’t have millions of descendants (that we know of at least)
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My mistake. I googled "ancestors of Attila the Hun" and for some reason "1 in 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan" was a top five answer. I just wasn't attentive enough.
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I mean, outside of the Bible, there is no hard evidence he actually even existed. I understand most historians believe that he did, but the only evidence they have are the gospels of John, Mathew, Luke and Mark.
Christians cant even agree upon his actual name and birthdate. Its all so vague but the stories are made to be very elaborate and matter of factly.
Even Muhammads story of how he became a prophet can seem very hokey.
I mean, lets face it, if anyone today came along and claimed the things of those men did, people would mock them on tik tok and move right along.
Buddah seems the most genuine based on the teachings to be honest. The philosophies makes sense and are just as practical for today as they were back then.
Ghengis Khan should not only be on this list, but high on it tbh.
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That isn’t true at all. No major historian or scholar doubts the historicity of Jesus. It is and has always been a fringe position, mostly taken by an extreme minority of uneducated, untrained fanatical atheists and internet dorks.
There are various ancient historians, both Jewish and Roman, that attest to Jesus’s existence, and none that question it.
Even a cursory examination of the gospels themselves contain the kinds of evidence historians look for when ascertaining the reliability of eye-witness testimony, versus whole cloth fabrications.
One thing you look for in testimony is the criterion of embarrassment, i.e. an account which contains embarrassing facts about the author, or might even undermine their argument or dissuade readers from supporting their position.
One of the easiest examples is the gospel narrative that Mary Magdalene and several other female followers of Jesus remained by his side during the crucifixion while his male disciples (Peter, John, Matthew, Mark, and Luke) all fled in fear and left him to die. Not exactly the the kind of story you’d write about yourself if you were making up a religion and wanted to win people over to you.
Another example, again with Mary Magdalene, is the gospel account that she was the first to witness Jesus’s resurrection. Under Jewish law, a woman’s testimony carried no legal weight whatsoever. Again, not exactly the story you’d go with if you were looking to convince a bunch of Jewish dudes to join you and throw money at your radical new religion.
There’s many other examples, such as Jesus’s baptism at the hands of John the Baptist. If Jesus were the perfect, sinless physical incarnation of God, why would he need to be baptized by a man? Ditto for Jesus being born to a mother who was pregnant with him before she got married, and whose betrothed wanted to leave her when he discovered it. Why would any gospel writer inventing a new religion write such an embarrassing story that would almost certainly result in people laughing under the breath at the dubious fiction created to disguise or explain away his bastard origins?
You also wouldn’t create a religion about a messianic figure who seemingly failed to fulfill messianic prophecy, and who got himself crucified and killed instead. What would be the point?
Of course the final oddity is that all the disciples who created this religion didn’t get rich, they got dead. You’d think after the first few guys getting crucified upside down (like Peter), the rest of the followers would have backed off their made up religion, which they presumably came up with for riches and power.
The fact is early Christians neither got rich, nor powerful. They got killed. A lot. It’s just absurd to argue wave after wave of them continued to get themselves killed for a lie. People kill for lies, but they don’t die for them.
The most logical choice for non-Christians to make is that Jesus was real, but was not God, and did not rose from the dead. To deny he existed at all is utterly stupid and preposterous, which is why no major historian or scholar has ever tried to argue it.
There’s more evidence for Jesus than Socrates, Confucius, Shakespeare, or almost any other ancient historical figure with the exception of military conquerors like Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great.
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Jesus owes a great deal of his relevancy post death to Paul. Christianity would have never gone beyond being a Jewish cult without him.
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This.
Jesus by whatever the fuck He wants. Everyone else is just fighting for second place.
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First off welcome back everyone, hope you guys are all doing well.
Here we go another tournament for you folks. Hope you like this one. It's a bit controversial I'd say, lets see if we can find out who the most influential person that ever lived.
I know most of you think the obvious winner is going to be Jesus. Maybe I guess we will find out, but anyways let's see how everyone else gets ranked in the top 30 or so.
Plus it's good way to learn about historical people that you haven't heard of or know very well.
My choices:
Muhammad
Jesus of Nazareth
Anne Frank
Buddha
Attila the Hun
Muhammad
Muhammad - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Immanuel Kant
James Cook
Immanuel Kant - Wikipedia
Jonas Salk
James Cook - Wikipedia
Walter Raleigh
Jonas Salk - Wikipedia
Jesus of Nazareth
Walter Raleigh - Wikipedia
Brothers Grimm
Jesus - Wikipedia
William the Conqueror
Brothers Grimm - Wikipedia
King Richard the Lionheart
William the Conqueror - Wikipedia
Anne Frank
Richard I of England - Wikipedia
Buddha
Anne Frank - Wikipedia
Cicero
The Buddha - Wikipedia
Leo Tolstoy
Cicero - Wikipedia
Victor Hugo
Leo Tolstoy - Wikipedia
Lorenzo de' Medici
Victor Hugo - Wikipedia
St. Paul
Lorenzo de' Medici - Wikipedia
C.S. Lewis
Paul the Apostle - Wikipedia
Attila the Hun
C. S. Lewis - Wikipedia
Cesar Chavez
Attila - Wikipedia
Alessandro Volta
Cesar Chavez - Wikipedia
Alessandro Volta - Wikipedia
Yeah, right. The guy who owns the shwarma place down the street is almost as popular as Jesus....
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this poll is terrible. i refuse to even vote to the poll lol.
the most influential, whether right or wrong, i say the following:
Jesus
Napoleon
Mohammad
Khengis khan
Churchill
i acknowledge that there is a lot of debate about this, but that is what i feel at the moment.
the most influential, whether right or wrong, i say the following:
Jesus
Napoleon
Mohammad
Khengis khan
Churchill
i acknowledge that there is a lot of debate about this, but that is what i feel at the moment.
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Jesus is at the top.
The runners up are debatable.
List has glaring omissions.
The runners up are debatable.
List has glaring omissions.
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