To you, who is the greatest person who ever lived?

[Vhite]

Me. Because how do I know any of you exist outside my own brain? How do I know that when I die, the world won't simply cease to exist?OooOOOoooOOOooo Twilight Zone music oooOOOoooOOOooo.

Crap, he's onto us. Everyone start acting as if this was a joke or else he will find out that we are all just an ilussion.

 

[Samantha Burt]

I couldn't really decide so I just picked the first person that came to mind when I started: Stephen Hawking.

Other alternatives were Archimedes, Newton, Einstein, and Curie (I like science, can you tell?)

 

[Vhite]

Richard Feynman. Because Jesus is already taken.

 

[Jegsimmons]

Jesus. Obviously.

but to be fair ill list a runner up.

Alexander the great. With out him, we wouldn't have had western culture as strong as now.

 

[Blobpie]

My mom, without her. i wouldn't be alive

 

[Samantha Burt]

Me. Otherwise I wouldn't be here to even think about this question.

Hooray for arrogance!

Actually, given the logic of metaphysics and psychology, really that's the only answer. Since you aren't even aware that others exist, you should go for the safe bet, and you did

 

[Klumpfot]

I'm going to go ahead and say Carl Sagan. A great mind, a great man and one of the best proponents of science ever!

 

[Dangit2019]

Ehh, I'm Christian, but saying Jesus would be a little unoriginal.

Theodore Roosevelt. Your argument is invalid.

 

[WhyBotherToTry]

I'm quite surprised at the number of people who have said Jesus so far. I've always thought that the religious were a minority on this site, or at least the outspoken ones. Anyway, I'll say either David Attenborough, W.B. Yeats or Oscar Wilde.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

Frédéric Chopin is one of my favourite people ever. Reading biographies on him only improved my opinion of him. Seriously, on top of composing some of the most beautiful music of all time the guy was a boss.

I mean sure he did practically nothing for the betterment of humankind, and has had a relatively small impact on the world - even musically - but I'll be damned if I'm not allowed my own whimsical prerogatives!

 

[SckizoBoy]

I couldn't really decide so I just picked the first person that came to mind when I started: Stephen Hawking.

Other alternatives were Archimedes, Newton, Einstein, and Curie (I like science, can you tell?)

Fah! If you want physicists who had impact, then Werner Heisenberg, Henri Poincare, Lise Meitne, Paul Dirac, Max Planck & Wolfgang Pauli.

As for science in general... Linus Pauling, Ernst Chain & Sir John Florey, Rosalind Franklyn, Prince Rupert, Jabir ibn Hayyan & Gerhard Herzberg.

(Had to post when I read 'Stephen Hawking', good grief, I can't stand the guy...)

 

[christhenoob]

For me it falls under different categories that must be individually identified.

Most interesting to have listened to:
Christopher Hitches, Richard Dawkins, Steven Fry, Niel Degrasse Tyson, Lawrence Krauss

Scientific Badasses of History:
Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Aristotle, Darwin

Historical Figures:
Adam Smith, John Locke, other Enlightenment thinkers, Leonardo De Vinci (falls under science also)

That's just off the top of my head.

 

[MorganL4]

Mohandas K. Gandhi..... Not only did he use nonviolence as a means of rebellion ( a successful one I might add) that brought about the end of the British occupation of India ( later India and Pakistan) But he was also a major influence to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who then used similar tactics to bring about the civil rights revolution here in the US.

 

[Casual Shinji]

My mom, without her. i wouldn't be alive

Yep, same here!

Even Jesus can't beat that.

 

[cwmdulais]

i dont think anyone has mentioned Socrates yet, which is pretty shocking, since he piratically invented western philosophy and indirectly shaped history and modern thought

 

[kgpspyguy]

George Bush Jr, when Obama was found responsible for the world trade centre attacks back in the 80s, Bush was the first to retaliate against Obama. He rounded up the remnants of Genghis Khan's old horde and rode with them against Obama. He defeated Obama and gave the Mongols a glorious victory they had not seen since Genghis Khan died 60 years earlier in New Jersey.

A lot of people would say that was a trivial moment in history, but without the support of the Mongol horde, America would never have won WW2, George Bush saved the world from WW2.

Amen brother.

 

[RustlessPotato]

The guy who thought of cooking some bacon...

 

[JoJo]

Maybe not the greatest but Winston Churchill comes to mind as a pretty great bloke, spurring my nation to fight one of the evillest regimes the world has seen with all the effort we could muster, mainly for the benefit of other countries (Hitler wanted an alliance with the British Empire). Okay, Churchill was a bit racist and maybe a bit too warmongering but hey, no-one's perfect right?