Personally I think Hammurabi had more of an influence then Jesus Christ. Under his administration laws were gathered and documented. These laws set up the basic tenants of justice that we still follow to this day. And influence that is older and more far reaching then the teachings of Christ.
Marc
Most important historical figure
The guy who discovered masturbation 
On a more serious tone, I believe a case can be made for Christopher Columbus. Sure he was a soulless pirate, a lucky bastard whose claim to history fundaments itself on the fortuitous coincidence that there was an undiscovered continent on the path to India, rather than on the strength of any real merit. The only positive that could be mentioned in reference to him is his perseverance and motivation to seek out the realization of his life’s pursuit.
But he did formally discovered America (I say formally because the vikings had already reached the American mainland without realizing the magnitude of their discovery), and that in itself is a transcendental and most influential contribution, serving as it did to unify humanity and pave the road for its advancement to greener pastures (unfortunately only after surviving the dark period that engulfed the colonization stage that preceded the integration of the human race).
It can effectively be argued that hadn’t Columbus struck gold, someone else would have eventually. As much as that is true, it is applicable to most advancements made so far by the human race. If Newton had not explained gravitation, someone else would have likely done so; if Einstein hadn’t unified space and time, others would have eventually reached such an intellectual pinnacle.
Not to detract from their impressive accomplishments, but new discoveries and inventions lay occulted from human perception and inventive only for so much. Eventually someone will tap into the mysteries uncovered by such sources of knowledge, unleashing new Pandora’s boxes–nuclear energy, for instance–that will make humanity question whether continuos and unrestricted “progress” is a good idea after all.
Nonetheless, progress is an inevitable process fueled by the curiosity inherent to the human spirit. It is inertial in nature; if not affected by outside and uncontrolled forces (the Medieval Church being the best example) it will just keep on rolling until its potential devastating manifestations are reached or until, as Darkcool suggested on another thread, there is nothing else to know (highly unlikely scenario).
Anyway, before I drift farther off subject, let me toss out another name: Gutenberg. His development of printing served as a catalyst for the dissemination of culture and thus propelled the scientific and technological advances that permeate present society.
OP topic : The most influential figure in history…
My answer : 0
I’ll go away now.
If we go by inventions, then I will go with the woman who invented soap. It allowed the hunters to hunt without their smell giving themselves away.
Quasar, Columbus did not discover America!!! There were groups of people that came from Africa and Asia who settled in the Western Hemisphere long before the goldthirsty Europeans came along.
If we rephrase the statement into, Columbus who opened up the paths to the great and unprecedent global exchange know as the first age of imperialism, then we have a statement which stands. The folks who came over to the Americas between perhaps 20kbp and 10kbp from Asia of course didn’t need to discover themselves, but Columbus was the effective establisher of sustained intercontinental exchanges. Good, bad, or indifferent, it did set of a huge set of changes.
Of course this begs the question, since if he had not done it, someone else would have since the technology had finally arrived.
Johannes Gutenberg, hands down.
Without moveable type and the printing press, we would still be in the middle ages. Prior to his time, if someone made an important discovery, only a few people were able to learn about it. We needed high-volume printing to distribute new documents widely, and to ensure that they were not lost. Think of the many many Greek and Roman works that have disappeared. A burning of the Library of Alexandria would not have the same impact today.
I would also say that Gutenberg was more important to Christianity than Luther or Calvin. There had been numerous ‘heresies’ against the Catholic Church before, but none of them were able to sustain themselves. Luther and Calvin were the first protesters to arise after the printing press, and find an open field for their ideas.
Bill
The guy who invented television, which shapes and defines our present, and periodically reshapes our past.
Stepping back into the conversation;
I’d say the people who invented writing are the most influential. History is lost within a generation when there are no written records. All the great events, leaders, ideas, etc. are lost if only stored in a person’s memory.
The idea of transmitting an idea or concept not only over a great distance, but also thru time beats all others hands down.
**Wouldn’t it be nice if people actually read the posts instead of skimming through them? **
Referring you to what I REALLY said:
In other words, for all practical purposes, Columbus’ arrival to America was the fundamental step needed to integrate the New World with the rest of the planet.
Thereby establishing his transcendental importance and fundamental contributions to history. Admittedly though, his claim to historic “greatness” rests on the strength of luck rather than any real merit, as I mentioned before.
Having cleared that up, I must admit that I had no previous knowledge of African and Asians groups settling in the west before the Europeans. I would appreciate if you could elaborate on that.
Anyway, that seems plausible enough. Transoceanic travel was possible in the old times, their primitive embarkations notwithstanding. I don’t recall his name, but some guy traveled from the western coast of South America to Polynesia on a small, primitive balsa named Kontiki, thus proving that such kind of voyages could have really taken place.
Which I mentioned on my previous post. But, reiterating what I said before, progress, conceptualized as the adquisition of new knowledge, is unstoppable; it is inertial in nature. Highly improbable scenarios–alien invasion, sudden awareness that unrestricted progress is not necessarily the best way to go–are the only obstacles that could impede it from rolling on forever. In any case, you can make a case that all of the major discoveries and inventions made so far would have eventually been proposed by someone else had the original discoverer/inventor not beaten him/her/them to the punch.
Hence, this kind of argument should not work in detriment of any of the candidates mentioned so far. What can be effectively argued is the possibly most important transcendence of religious leaders–from this argument’s standpoint–since the subjective nature of their ideologies makes it improbable that someone else would have, on a posterior time, come with precisely that same bullshit, I mean religion. Nonetheless, similar and maybe even more influential religions would have no doubt been eventually posited, and the masses likely would have been sucked into them, so this argument probably can not stand on solid ground either.
Well, I’d still have to give the “Most Influential” title to Alexander the Great over JC, because:
Therefore: Alexander trumps JC.
You’re probably talking about Michael Hart’s The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History.
I liked the book, but I’m not sure whether I agree. A case could still be made for Jesus Christ I think, but Mohammed is also an excellent candidate. Oddly enough, despite the massive numbers of Chinese, I doubt the worldwide influence of Chinese culture matches that of Western culture.
Well said!
But, for all intents and purposes, such inventors and conquerers may have paved ways, but their CONTINUED influence is not so easily determined (who pays homage to Newton everytime their checkbook balances?).
I am not Christian, but I defer to “Jesus is the reason for the Season” bumper stickers, because it is true. (And not to be specious, but sure people work on Dec. 25th, but EVERYONE knows it’s Jesus’s b-day, and EVERYONE’s life is affected by that fact. Just becuase you worship Mohammed, just TRY to find parking at the mall in 2 months.)
Nobody worships Mohammed, Moslems worship god. Still, Dec 25 does not bring the world to a halt, plenty of non-Christian parts of the world could care less.
Apparently I’m not Muslim either, and hopelessly a Westerner.
Okay, here’s an example of what “influence” could mean: let’s presume the Taiwainese are not very Christian, right? BUT, there are plenty of Taiwanese manufacturing plant, which employ many Tainwanese people. These plant step up production during the Western holiday season for the export of toys and electronics. The effect of Jesus b-day on so many people has repercussions around the globe, even if you are not directly influenced.
And while Mohammed may have had a major impact for those in that faith, I doubt that his influence is felt around the world.
But then, I am hopelessly Western.
I had that book before it was borrowed (Stolen) and I would have sworn it was Mohammed, Christ, and THEN Newton. A reasonable 1-2-3 pick.
But the book picked John F. Kennedy as one of the 100 most influential people of all time, a guy I wouldn’t have had in my top thousand.
Nah, jsut provincial.
That’s stretching it to me, leaving aside the fact not all Xtians go gift giving crazy on 25 Dec. The above is an example of American influence, not JC as a man/teacher blah blah. I could bootstrap Hammurabi’s law code as influence in this manner.
Perhaps you should get out more.
No, provincial. Of course now there is at least two different ideas of “influential” going on in this thread.