Have at you!

I'm not gonna trash newton in any way, because that would be silly. But gutenberg is responsible for the spread of ideas more than anyone, ever. Books did exist before him, but they were in the hands of a priviledged few, and were extremely expensive and rare. Gutenberg essentially made information available to the masses. Everyone could own a bible. everyone could learn to read. He essentially 'invented' mass literacy, and we don't know that anyone would have invented what he invented easily if he never did. The entire concept of a yeoman farmer's son (Newton) ever having a chance to learn anything is essentially credited to Gutenberg.

Without Gutenberg, half the people on this list never learn anything or become anything because the were commoners who didnt have access to books. Newton maybe never exists. Shakespeare maybe never learns to write. Somebody would have invented an efficient press, but it might have been 50-100 years later. A lot of the men on this list came from very wealthy families because that was the only way to acquire learning, and every common birth person in europe who made an impact on the world in the couple hundred years after gutenberg owes their success to him.

This list is terrible george washington over napoleon wtf! Also religous figures should be over everyone else. it should be religous scientific/philsophy then world leaders. also this list is way to america biased. Columbus is way to high and where is Abraham??? Jesus is ovious number 1 followed by mohhmad. Confucious/buddah/saint paul follow in no paticualr oder. Abraham is oviously more important to the Jewish religion then moses he started the god damn religion

you know what the more i'm looking at the list the more i think it sucks. Johan gutenberg over Moses wtf. Religious figures should be filling up top 10 not johan ****** gutenberg

Not particularly American-centric. More Eurocentric. Pretty much nothing of any worth has come from outside of Western Civilization. During the Middle Ages, the Turks came close intellectually and militarily to Europe, coming as close to Vienna in their conquest of Europe, but since they were defeated they have stagnated. They haven't contributed to any of our current achievements other than to re-introduce lost Aristotelian works back into the West.

This is nonsense.

bigmonkey are u a ******. What about Russia China south America the world doesn't revolve around Europe. Go back to school you dumb ****

Bigmonkey,

Gun powder

Panzer,

Maybe if you settle down and explain your disgust in greater depth, we'd have something with substance to talk about.

Simple yet brilliant. I think the world would have alot less problems if everyone thought like that.

I knew the literacy to the masses was the point you would bring, and I have to admit it is amazing. The world has gone a long way in making a lot more people priviledged in the last 300 years (much better in the last 50 years). I don't know if Gutenberg is currently the person owed spreading ideas more than anyone. The team of citizens that created the computer and later the internet have probably done more of that recently, but I wouldn't put them on top of Newton. I mean if we go with spreading ideas, then the tv, the movies, all of those hit the masses. I have to admit there are good arguments for Gutenberg on top, but these are just different sorts of influential people.

BigMonkey your view on history is catastrohpic. Everything does not revolve around the western world. People such as Mohhamad, Gahndi, and Buddah were born in other parts of the world. Also European nations learned from the Japanese and Chinese and set up extensive trade routs with them. The Ottoman and Mongolion empire where one battle away from taking over the world. If The Ottoman empire was not stopped in the danub river they would of pushed into the heart of Europe. Please relook your thoughts on the world and Go back to school you stupid ****.
Happy now Mr.Wookie

In all fairness, South America counts as Western Civilization and in some ways Russia too (the biggest cities in Russia, Moscow and St. Petersburg are in Europe).

Anyway, the idea that Western Civilization is the only important thing and that is what aliens would focus on seems too far fetched. The history of Asia is full of interesting aspects that have added to the culture of mankind. Africa was where we allegedly started, hence that added to the world too.

Panzer,

No, I'm not. Your tone is still completely unacceptable for this forum. Settle down, ditch the name calling, and I'm sure we'd all appreciate it if you used a spell check, too.

enrique,

we are being far too nice and deferential and civil in our debate. Clearly not acceptable. So now i'm calling you a geek loser internet nerd who's never been laid and has the IQ of a hamster. So there, ha. now we are like everyone else in this thread.

I think Europe rightly dominates this list. All of North America, South America and Europe are influenced by Europe. Russia is essentially also europe. And europe is where most of the advances that affect the world today happened, and if they happened elsewhere as well, the europeans SPREAD their discoveries. Sure, China simultaneously discovered many things that europeans did, but who spread their culture? Europe. I think the list essentially balances in a fair manner between european culture and others. I could perhaps see an argument for a few more middle eastern types from the dark ages of europe, as they were pretty influential and touched a lot of different civilizations. But not an argument for any more oriental types. China and Japan simply didnt influence the rest of the world like Europe did.

also, GW is overrated. Awesome guy, but more important than Khan? Really?

As long as we're talking about the importance of Gutenberg and trying to make Asia and Africa vanish from world history, it seems appropriate to mention a particular invention: paper.

Overated:
Gw
Newton
Homer
Kennedy
Columbus
Darwin
Beetoven
Bell
Wright Brothers

Underated:
Napoleon
Abraham
Charlemegne
Martin Luther
Casear(Maybe)

The thing about Washington is that his terms as President were almost wholly new and unique, and the choices he made set the stage for every President and Prime Minister since. Very few other men would have had the principles and resolve to avoid taking more power, to avoid alliances and taking sides even when it would have benefited him and his country in the short, to keep religious influence away from his decision-making, to voluntarily step down, etc.

Danny, see my post above and read up more on Asia. The wheelbarrow, compass, umbrella, paper, paper money, gunpowder, silk, printing, and the stirrup were all invented in Asia. Also, when you talk about influencing the world, remember that people ARE the world. It's impossible to talk about Asia having no real influence in the world without forgetting that most of the world IS Asian. Surely they did not lack influence on themselves.

Genius

You're gonna have to explain this one.

I'm not disgusted with anything. I'm not sure where this hostile atmosphere suddenly came from.

Western Civilization does encompass all of Europe, North America, much of South America, Russia, northern Africa and Australasia. It has been commented already that nearly everybody on this list was influenced by Jesus Christ, hence why Jesus Christ deserves to be really high on the list. Almost nobody on this list was influenced by Mohammad, Confucius or Buddha. Even though lots of people in the world have been influenced by those people, quite simply, those people are not important and do not reflect whatsoever on the greatness of the human race. There are billions of insignificant people influenced by Christ as well, but more importantly, many very significant people.

Panzerocks, I think you badly misunderstand, or are simply ignorant of Japan's history. Europe has never learned anything from them and I hope they never do. Only one hundred and fifty years ago they were a feudal state with almost no knowledge of the outside world, and had never advanced in many centuries. Even in 1945 they believed in the divinity of their emperors. They are about as unenlightened a people as there is on Earth.

As for the Ottoman empire, who can say what would have happened had they spread Islam to Europe? Would we be more enlightened now than we really are? Would it be about the same? Or would we still be stagnating in the Dark Ages? We probably would, given what has happened to Western Asia in the last five hundred years. Practically nothing. In fact I think one could easily argue that they have become even less enlightened. I remember studying the Islamic colonisation of Granada. They were very tolerant of Christians then, and the two communities lived side by side. When the Spanish invaded, they were far less tolerant, and Muslims were second-class citizens. I doubt there are many Islamic countries today that are as tolerant as they were 500 years ago.

Darwin was a great man but 11 is to high for him. People such as Aristotle Martin Luther, Moses all deserve to be over him

Panzer,

That's not an explanation. That's another assertion.

Bigmonkey,

You must have gotten confused by me addressing two people in the same post.

Yeah, but Mikhail Kalashnikov was the nomination

Stagger Lee,

PM Ryan Beal and he'll fix your name.