Who would you put in the top 10?

My list:

Muhammad
Jesus
Newton
Buddha
Confucius
Gutenberg
Columbus
Pasteur
Maxwell
Einstein

Crapper was more influential than everyone in your list combined.

Lists are for sycophants and morons as they wish to appear wiser than everyone else. The internet has given them an immense audience.

Way to murder the thread, Zeno. Your undertitle is well earned.

Adolf Hitler was the first name that occurred to me

Adam
Eve
Noah
Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Moses
David
Solomon
Mary
Jesus

Religious henchmen and frauds have mislead billions and the credulous eat it up like cake. And it will continue forever.

Ah, if fictional people can be nominated, I would like to add Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker and John Connor to the list

Interesting that only King David and King Solomon have any historical evidence for their existence outside of the Bible.

Ghengis Khan was the greatest general in history, built worlds largest empire, and at least 8% of Chinese men are his direct descendants. You can quibble with his methods, but not his impact.

And there is almost no credible evidence Jesus, Confucius, or Buddha actually existed. Due to the impact of their legacies it’s likely that someone existed in their cases or that they are an amalgam of multiple people. But it’s interesting to see them on a list of historical figures when historical evidence is so lacking for them.

All this can also be said of Socrates. Even though we have no solid evidence they actually existed, it’s their ideas that are important.

Hitler influenced History, as did Pol Pot...

It's seemingly impossible to measure this. I wouldn't know how to weigh the sheer impact someone had on something versus the type and how focused, widespread or long-lasting it was and how it branched out. It's also difficult to compare the influence of an inventor or scientist to that of an artist and that to a monarch. Of course Hitler was influential, as people are mentioning here, but was he really more influential than Nietzsche given Nietzsche's influence on Hitler—and so many others in the West?

Anyway, if I had to guess, I'd start with the authors of the major religious texts, some of the Greek philosophers and then onto some of the Enlightenment thinkers and scientists. After that I'd move towards more recent philosophers. Einstein, Freud and Edison as well.

there is an argument for Pontius Pilate being very influential.

Not a good one. I'd argue if Pontius hadn't crucified Mr Jesus the religion would still have spread, and even if it wasn't Jesus, one of the other numerous apocalyptic jewish rabbis Jesus modeled himself on would have been annointed "the messiah".

The old testament message was getting old, it was harsh edicts from a dark and brutal time and the world was progressing to the point where people wanted a softer kinder message from their religion.

hypotheticals are really not that great for discerning and clarifying positions and ideas... what folks need to do is to assess based on factual elements of history, not 'what if's' that never can be tested or confirmed.

how can you have a martyr without a martyr...

Mythological gibberish is what really matters. Read the Bible for proof!

I'll put a word in for Lucy (Australopithecus), born 3.2 milllions year ago, who helped her hominin species avoid extinction thereby allowing us all to be here today!