Most divisive person in the history of the world? (1 Viewer)

[Sinn Fein]

Can you imagine what the world would be like today, if Jesus Christ, the historical person, never existed?

What would religion look like, if Christianity had never been born? Would Islam have been founded? Would Islam have dominated the world? Would Islam have fractured the way christianity ultimately did?

Would mono-theistic religions, based on the vengeful Judeo-god of the old testament, have survived/thrived? Would atheism be the dominate thinking?

I can't think of a single person who has so divided the people on the planet than Jesus - which seems somewhat ironic, if his goal was to bring people together.

 

[Insein]

Religion

 

[MikeIke]

Tanner Boyle

 

[Jack White]

Always take the field.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Always take the field.

You would think - but I am struggling to come up with anyone close.

 

[MikeIke]

Always take the field.

You would think - but I am struggling to come up with anyone close.

I'd say Muhammed is the more devisive of the two.

 

[Cjw_55106]

 

[avoiding injuries]

Terrible

 

[dgreen]

I can't think of a single person who has so divided the people on the planet than Jesus - which seems somewhat ironic, if his goal was to bring people together.

Not sure that was his goal. Where did you get that from?

 

[Jayrok]

Can you imagine what the world would be like today, if Jesus Christ, the historical person, never existed?

I imagine it would be much the same as it is now. The Christianity that we have today could have existed and thrived with or without a historical Jesus. Many people even believe the movement started with a mythical Jesus.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Always take the field.

You would think - but I am struggling to come up with anyone close.

I'd say Muhammed is the more devisive of the two.

without jesus, maybe we are all Muslim

 

[GregR]

There are people who are going to fight, who are going to try to take power and impose their will on others, regardless of the name or religion in which they claim to do it.

And there are people who are going to be religious zealots and warp a religion's message regardless of which religion they end up in.

Perhaps a better question might be... have we seen less war, strife, and divisiveness because those behaviors are against Jesus's teachings, than we would have if other possible or likely belief systems had taken the place of Christianity?

 

[The General]

Kim Kardashian's giant ###.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Tanner Boyle

moron

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

Hitler

Adam (of Adam & Eve fame)

 

[Sinn Fein]

There are people who are going to fight, who are going to try to take power and impose their will on others, regardless of the name or religion in which they claim to do it.

And there are people who are going to be religious zealots and warp a religion's message regardless of which religion they end up in.

Perhaps a better question might be... have we seen less war, strife, and divisiveness because those behaviors are against Jesus's teachings, than we would have if other possible or likely belief systems had taken the place of Christianity?

Seems unlikely - given the amount of war and destruction that has taken place in areas dominated by christians - Just thinking relatively recently, WWI and WWII, the Civil War, Revolutionary War, The constant wars between/among England Spain and France....

 

[Sinn Fein]

Hitler

Adam (of Adam & Eve fame)

The original poll was going to be Jesus v. Hitler - but I am not so sure Hitler was that divisive. You are not going to find many supporters, even historically. Zealots for sure, but relatively minority position world-wide.

 

[Gawain]

There are people who are going to fight, who are going to try to take power and impose their will on others, regardless of the name or religion in which they claim to do it.

And there are people who are going to be religious zealots and warp a religion's message regardless of which religion they end up in.

Perhaps a better question might be... have we seen less war, strife, and divisiveness because those behaviors are against Jesus's teachings, than we would have if other possible or likely belief systems had taken the place of Christianity?

Seems unlikely - given the amount of war and destruction that has taken place in areas dominated by christians - Just thinking relatively recently, WWI and WWII, the Civil War, Revolutionary War, The constant wars between/among England Spain and France....

Eurocentric thinking.

Confucionism, Buddhism and Taoism would appear to win this hands down.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

...I can't think of a single person who has so divided the people on the planet than Jesus - which seems somewhat ironic, if his goal was to bring people together.

Based on this I will go with Emperor Tiberius, because he executed JC. And it wasn't JC's life that divided people, but death.

I'd then go Emperor Nero, then Emperor Constantine who literally drew a line between the East and West which remains today, then leapfrog all the way to Wilhelm II, Adolf Hitler and Josef Zhugashvili aka Stalin.

 

[roadkill1292]

Hitler

Adam (of Adam & Eve fame)

The original poll was going to be Jesus v. Hitler - but I am not so sure Hitler was that divisive. You are not going to find many supporters, even historically. Zealots for sure, but relatively minority position world-wide.

That's the same logic that kept me from mentioning Johnny Manziel.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Hitler

Adam (of Adam & Eve fame)

The original poll was going to be Jesus v. Hitler - but I am not so sure Hitler was that divisive. You are not going to find many supporters, even historically. Zealots for sure, but relatively minority position world-wide.

That's the same logic that kept me from mentioning Johnny Manziel.

Tebow is probably closer

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Hitler

Adam (of Adam & Eve fame)

The original poll was going to be Jesus v. Hitler - but I am not so sure Hitler was that divisive. You are not going to find many supporters, even historically. Zealots for sure, but relatively minority position world-wide.

If you're talking beliefs that's maybe different than what I was thinking. Hitler and Stalin actually sent two halves of the world waging war against the other half, especially considering how much territory the Brits, French and Germans had divided up in colonies and territories and throwing in the allies on both sides that jumped in.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

In terms of beliefs, consider:

Karl Marx.

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

Hitler

Adam (of Adam & Eve fame)

The original poll was going to be Jesus v. Hitler - but I am not so sure Hitler was that divisive. You are not going to find many supporters, even historically. Zealots for sure, but relatively minority position world-wide.

If you're talking beliefs that's maybe different than what I was thinking. Hitler and Stalin actually sent two halves of the world waging war against the other half, especially considering how much territory the Brits, French and Germans had divided up in colonies and territories and throwing in the allies on both sides that jumped in.

Hitler suffers from the recency effect, he divided the world recently but will the impact last 20 centuries?

 

[Thunderlips]

Does JC's existence bring about the demise of the Roman Empire?

Does JC's existence bring about or influence the creation of Islam?

If so, is there anyway that a non Christian directed defense against Islam halt or stop the expansion of Islam?

Does JC's existence influence the Mongol Invasion?......or if there's no JC....is Islam able to stop the Mongol Invasion?

 

[Sinn Fein]

...I can't think of a single person who has so divided the people on the planet than Jesus - which seems somewhat ironic, if his goal was to bring people together.

Based on this I will go with Emperor Tiberius, because he executed JC. And it wasn't JC's life that divided people, but death.

I'd then go Emperor Nero, then Emperor Constantine who literally drew a line between the East and West which remains today, then leapfrog all the way to Wilhelm II, Adolf Hitler and Josef Zhugashvili aka Stalin.

Tiberius is not divisive - nobody knows who he is.

Bad guys are not generally divisive (except maybe in wrestling) - with Jesus, you have a sizable population who believe in Jesus/christianity fervently and a sizable population who oppose the concept of christianity equally as fervently.

Without Jesus, and the subsequent shift from vengeful god to loving god, my guess is the monotheistic God concept may not have survived.

 

[Captain Quinoa]

Darwin

 

[Cjw_55106]

Hitler

Adam (of Adam & Eve fame)

The original poll was going to be Jesus v. Hitler - but I am not so sure Hitler was that divisive. You are not going to find many supporters, even historically. Zealots for sure, but relatively minority position world-wide.

If you're talking beliefs that's maybe different than what I was thinking. Hitler and Stalin actually sent two halves of the world waging war against the other half, especially considering how much territory the Brits, French and Germans had divided up in colonies and territories and throwing in the allies on both sides that jumped in.

Thats some power there.

 

[Captain Quinoa]

Solomon... almost.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Hitler

Adam (of Adam & Eve fame)

The original poll was going to be Jesus v. Hitler - but I am not so sure Hitler was that divisive. You are not going to find many supporters, even historically. Zealots for sure, but relatively minority position world-wide.

If you're talking beliefs that's maybe different than what I was thinking. Hitler and Stalin actually sent two halves of the world waging war against the other half, especially considering how much territory the Brits, French and Germans had divided up in colonies and territories and throwing in the allies on both sides that jumped in.

Thats some power there.

Well I didn't say they were good at math...

 

[Black Box]

Without Jesus, and the subsequent shift from vengeful god to loving god, my guess is the monotheistic God concept may not have survived.

The Jews disagree.

 

[Rubi]

 

[dgreen]

I don't understand. What's the fishing part here?

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

...I can't think of a single person who has so divided the people on the planet than Jesus - which seems somewhat ironic, if his goal was to bring people together.

Based on this I will go with Emperor Tiberius, because he executed JC. And it wasn't JC's life that divided people, but death.

I'd then go Emperor Nero, then Emperor Constantine who literally drew a line between the East and West which remains today, then leapfrog all the way to Wilhelm II, Adolf Hitler and Josef Zhugashvili aka Stalin.

Tiberius is not divisive - nobody knows who he is.

Bad guys are not generally divisive (except maybe in wrestling) - with Jesus, you have a sizable population who believe in Jesus/christianity fervently and a sizable population who oppose the concept of christianity equally as fervently.

Without Jesus, and the subsequent shift from vengeful god to loving god, my guess is the monotheistic God concept may not have survived.

What about Marx?

 

[joffer]

Radiohead

 

[General Tso]

Taking religion out of the discussion - Jesus was an amazing historical figure. A lot of things had to go right for him to have had the influence he did. Right place, right time, right people, right sequence of events... The only person I can think of who was even close to achieving the same level of historical significance as Jesus did was Hitler. If he had obtained the atom bomb before we did he might have transformed history in a similar fashion as Jesus did.

 

[GregR]

There are people who are going to fight, who are going to try to take power and impose their will on others, regardless of the name or religion in which they claim to do it.

And there are people who are going to be religious zealots and warp a religion's message regardless of which religion they end up in.

Perhaps a better question might be... have we seen less war, strife, and divisiveness because those behaviors are against Jesus's teachings, than we would have if other possible or likely belief systems had taken the place of Christianity?

Seems unlikely - given the amount of war and destruction that has taken place in areas dominated by christians - Just thinking relatively recently, WWI and WWII, the Civil War, Revolutionary War, The constant wars between/among England Spain and France....

Listing only Christian wars isn't really doing a comparison, it's just a list. Is that more or less strife than other religions? Roman, Greek, Islam, Teutonic, Mongolian, Buddhist, Persian, etc etc? Some I'd say obviously more (e.g. Buddhist), others obviously less (e.g. Mongol), and many others up for debate or would need a close look. Also can be tough to account for the differences due to era. Like between, say, English-French Wars of the Colonial era and the fighting between comparatively small Greek city states and their neighbors. Which is more warlike when you take the different eras into account?

I don't have an answer, but I think it's a decent question.

 

[FlapJacks]

Karl Marx

 

[Jackstraw]

Jesus was awesome. His followers have kind of sucked.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Jesus was awesome. His followers have kind of sucked.

its not about being awesome (or un-awesome).

One of the reasons Jesus is most divisive is that large numbers of people believe he was awesome, and large numbers of people believe he either did not exist, or was not as awesome as the followers believed.

 

[GregR]

Also since the Civil War was brought up, how does this factor in with Jesus?

Christians created the slave trade (their own anyway). How does that factor in with Jesus? Many slavers may have claimed at least in part a religious defense for their actions. Does that mean Jesus was the divisive force there if it wasn't his teaching?

Then jump ahead to the Civil War. Is it fair to say Christian teachings eventually lead to the conclusion that slavery is wrong? I'd think so. So does a war where ending slavery was one of the contributing factors and goals count as a negative or a positive thing that people were divisive with those who engaged in slavery?

 

[tdoss]

Bill Bellicheat

 

[timschochet]

In terms of beliefs, consider:

Karl Marx.

Gotta go with this too. Unlike Jesus, Marx came along right at the time mass communication was created. Unlike MuHammad, Marx's ideas have been influential and divisive far beyond his devout followers. Unlike Hitler, Marx's ideology has long survived his death.

It has to be Marx hands down.

 

[General Tso]

In terms of beliefs, consider:

Karl Marx.

Gotta go with this too. Unlike Jesus, Marx came along right at the time mass communication was created. Unlike MuHammad, Marx's ideas have been influential and divisive far beyond his devout followers. Unlike Hitler, Marx's ideology has long survived his death.

It has to be Marx hands down.

Adam Smith anyone?

 

[Super King]

Oprah?

 

[timschochet]

In terms of beliefs, consider:

Karl Marx.

Gotta go with this too. Unlike Jesus, Marx came along right at the time mass communication was created. Unlike MuHammad, Marx's ideas have been influential and divisive far beyond his devout followers. Unlike Hitler, Marx's ideology has long survived his death.

It has to be Marx hands down.

Adam Smith anyone?

but this is not the most influential person (even if it was I probably wouldn't vote for Adam Smith.) It's the most divisive person. Marx's ideas have been far more divisive.

 

[matuski]

Christian Laetner

 

[trogg78]

I see you're including fictional characters.

 

[rockaction]

I think Jesus is a good choice.

I'm not sure about Marx and the other historical figures. This guy sort of declared himself the son of God. As C.S. Lewis starkly asked, do we consider him truthful, mad, or a liar?

I think that is enough.

I think Aristotle is the greatest historical figure, FWIW.

 

[Michael Brown]

Probably Kate Upton or Obama