from your, admittedly myopic view of the world, who was the most influential individual to have lived

[phisrow]

At this point in time, I'd have to hand it to either Aristotle or the founders of the largest current religions. Aristotle if you care about intellectual currents(that guy founded all manner of disciplines, and advanced a fair few more, as well as being the intellectual underpinning of c. 1000 years in the west, and 4 or 5 hundred in Islamic regions). If popular/cultural stuff is more important to you, religion founders take the cake.

Now, another question: who do you think will be, among reasonably contemporary figures(say now living or up to 100 years dead), the most influential person as we go forward in history?

In any case, I suspect the Rivest, Shamir, Adleman trio will make the cut. In my pessimistic prediction for the future, Mark Stefik will be the other most influential. In my optimistic prediction, Richard Stallman will be.

 

[JEDIYoda]

George W. Bush!!!
All Hail to the Chief!!!

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Easy.

Prophet Isa aka Jesus & Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Them) (You can stop reading and not respond to anything from this point onwards in the interest of not turning this thread into a flamewar)

3.5 Billion People in the world today draw inspiration & guidance from them. Screw the retards who fight in their name. These two men were great for what they preached and if people didn't take liberties in selectively believing what they wanted to (and chucking out the rest), the world would indeed be a better place. The problem is people's interpretation of religion, and the frustration of those who live sh!tty lives in war torn countries.

Religion might be the root cause of most of the world's problems today - but I shudder to imagine a world with no religion. Can't let the few retards (even a small percentage of is a hell lot of people) screw with a great message.

 

[j00fek]

jimi hendrix
jim morrison
layne staley

 

[amish]

jesus, because he has a cool name

or

j robert oppenheimer, because everybody either wants or is concerned with what he created.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

da vinci
thomas jeferson
sir francis bacon
any of the railroad moguls
Mr. ford

 

[Kev]

Jesus or Hitler

 

[yllus]

Johannes Gutenberg

 

[Turin39789]

You guys are all wrong.


It's me.

 

[Vic]

Sargon of Akkad
Hammurabi
Pythagoras
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Archimedes
Alexander the Great
Yeshua bar Yusef of Nazareth (Jesus)
Heron of Alexandria
Constantine the Great
Mohammed
Genghis Khan
Johannes Gutenberg
Christopher Columbus
Leonardo da Vinci
Martin Luther
Johannes Kepler
John Locke
Isaac Newton
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Paine
Karl Marx
Gandhi

Take your pick.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Tough choice, but I think I'll have to go with Christopher Columbus.

 

[UNCjigga]

Whoever founded the Greek republic (i.e. founder of ancient Athens). We don't know who that is, so I'd say its a tossup between Pericles and Alexander the Great.

 

[Vic]

A controversial choice I might add would be Hilkiah. Hilkiah was a Hebrew high priest and the father of the prophet Jeremiah who, in the late 600's BC, "found" the lost book of the law (believed to be the Book of Deuteronomy of the Torah) inside the Temple of Solomon, and then encouraged King Josiah to return Judah to the worship of Yahweh (which apparently it had left prior to). Read II Kings 22.

Another would be Zoroaster.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Hard not to choose Jesus, unless you question the probability of his existence (not his divinity mind you, which is largely irrelevant, but his existence). I can't even begin to contemplate the differences if no Christianity had existed (glorious though such dreams may be).

If you refute Jesus then I'd have to assume you're refuting all major religious figures so I'd go with Aristotle or Hitler. There are many other possibilities of course, especially since such small changes can have such enormous later impact. I could easily say King George III, since he had a hand in pushing the colonies to revolution. The down side of this choice (much like Hitler) is that their impact is measured in centuries and decades instead of millenia (like Aristotle). That's overly simplistic though since that means the first influencers are automatically the most influential. Really turns out to be a deep quesiton.