Who is the most influential person in history?

myp

Jan 2009
5,841
50
In any case, Christianity is more an argument for Saul's influence as it's his religion. Jesus was dead and gone a few decades before Christianity got started.

I'll admit I don't know much about all that, but it is something I should probably read up on.
 
Oct 2012
4,429
1,084
Louisville, Ky
I'll admit I don't know much about all that, but it is something I should probably read up on.

He may be thinking Paul (often confused with Saul), but I am assuming.

Regardless , Saul was a minor if not irrelevant player in the Bibles.

"
Saul’s Conversion

9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength."
 
Nov 2012
174
1
Salt Lake City, Utah
He may be thinking Paul (often confused with Saul), but I am assuming.

Regardless , Saul was a minor if not irrelevant player in the Bibles.

Your first sentence confuses me tec. Your statement "sounds like" Saul and Paul are two different people?

Saul became Paul after conversion, and I believe that is the connection David was making to the founding of Christianity.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
There are two different gospels....thus two different people.

The Gospels, none written by the people they're attributed to, all contradictory and most excluded from the cannon Bible for various theological and political reasons. Take the Gospels with a grain of salt.

A book was published (I don't remember it's name) a few years back in which the lies, exaggerations and truth in the Gospels was categorized (though it only applied to the parts dealing with Jesus' teachings). You might want to Google it.
 
Nov 2012
77
0
Novi, Michigan
I'm going to cast a vote for Themistocles. Without him we may very well not have had Democracy or Republicanism in the West.
 
Nov 2012
77
0
Novi, Michigan
So many major Greeks, who was he again?

He was a poltician in Athens at the time of the battle of Thermopylae. He's the one who convinced Athens to build a Navy even though most didn't want it, and he was the Admiral and supported the Spartans from the coast during the battle.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
He was a poltician in Athens at the time of the battle of Thermopylae. He's the one who convinced Athens to build a Navy even though most didn't want it, and he was the Admiral and supported the Spartans from the coast during the battle.

I have to disagree with his importance (to Western Civilization, obviously he saved Greece). Western democracy was born in Rome and matured in London. Athens wasn't even the 1st major democracy, the Indians of Indus get that honor and the Iroquois Federation was the 1st democracy in America, established around the same time as the Kingdom of England. Athenian democracy never spread past the city gates.
 
Nov 2012
77
0
Novi, Michigan
I have to disagree with his importance (to Western Civilization, obviously he saved Greece). Western democracy was born in Rome and matured in London. Athens wasn't even the 1st major democracy, the Indians of Indus get that honor and the Iroquois Federation was the 1st democracy in America, established around the same time as the Kingdom of England. Athenian democracy never spread past the city gates.

Greece without a doubt influenced Rome, but the point I was making is that if Greece had been conquered, Rome woudn't have happened. That means no Roman Republic, no Catholic Church or Christianity, no Holy Roman Empire, etc. Missing those things would significantly change history even if people didn't realize it. No offense to the Iriquois but their existence (or lack of) probably wouldn't be noticed outside of what is today the eastern United States.

Without the naval victories by Themistocles Greece would have been overrun.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
Greece without a doubt influenced Rome, but the point I was making is that if Greece had been conquered, Rome woudn't have happened. That means no Roman Republic, no Catholic Church or Christianity, no Holy Roman Empire, etc. Missing those things would significantly change history even if people didn't realize it. No offense to the Iriquois but their existence (or lack of) probably wouldn't be noticed outside of what is today the eastern United States.

Without the naval victories by Themistocles Greece would have been overrun.

Rome arose independently of Athens and was, until the conquest of Greece, extremely anti-Greek. Rome already existed at the time this was all happening (though I think it was still a kingdom) thus the saying that Alexander was only great because he didn't go west. Rome and Athens were contemporaries.
 
Nov 2012
77
0
Novi, Michigan
Rome and Athens were contemporaries the same way America and the British Empire are contemporaries. They did not reach the height of their power and influence simultaneously, Athens came first. A Mediterranean dominated by Persia would not have resulted in the Western Civilization we have today. The Roman Republic probably would not have existed without Athens, and definitely would not have existed with Persia in control of the Med, or at least that part of the Med.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
Rome and Athens were contemporaries the same way America and the British Empire are contemporaries. They did not reach the height of their power and influence simultaneously, Athens came first. A Mediterranean dominated by Persia would not have resulted in the Western Civilization we have today. The Roman Republic probably would not have existed without Athens, and definitely would not have existed with Persia in control of the Med, or at least that part of the Med.

Athens falling would have been irrelevant, Rome's democratic evolution was totally independent of Athens. True the Persians could of pushed west had they conquered the Greeks but they wouldn't have. The Persians were waging a punitive war, not a war of conquest. If Sparta and Athens hadn't provoked them, the Persians wouldn't have left Asia.
 
May 2012
215
37
The motherland
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http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Lion-Churchill-1940-1965/dp/0316547700

When it comes to the creation of the modern world, Churchill was the most influential person and he was directly responsible for creating Iraq and Jordan as Colonial Secretary in the 1920s as well as the post-war world order including the UN and IMF. William Manchester's final volume of Churchill's biography was published last month and I remember buying the first two volumes around five years ago.
 
Dec 2012
554
34
United States
It's the Cat from Nazareth.

But as church and state are separated, it just might be Charles Martel.

The Hammer.
 
Jan 2012
1,975
5
Texas
I really think I'd have to say Jesus. The whole world counts the year by his birth, real or not that is quite something.

But really the ultimate most influential person of all time was the guy that discovered how to start fire, man kind existed for millinna prior to Jesus thanks to fire.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
I really think I'd have to say Jesus. The whole world counts the year by his birth, real or not that is quite something.

But really the ultimate most influential person of all time was the guy that discovered how to start fire, man kind existed for millinna prior to Jesus thanks to fire.

He was born in 6 BCE, so no.

Also we didn't invent fire, some H. erectus did.
 
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