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Who is the most famous person in human history?

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PSqueak

Banned
Hitler.

Edit: I feel like we should limit it to people we factually know existed.

If you're saying this in response to the Jesus Christ answers, Jesus Christ is an actual historical person that existed, now any divine traits religion has attached to him? that's a different topic entirely.

My answer is Hitler as well tho.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Actually, maybe Einstein is more famous still?

I'm thinking world-wide. I wonder how familiar, say, Chinese kids are about Caesar, but surely they know Hitler and Einstein.
 
It's probably a religious leader like Jesus or Moses.

If you want to think about someone from the last 50 years. I can see it being Obama or Trump. Being the US president when the world population is 7 billion people might mean that the most people ever recognize you.
 

4Tran

Member
If we restrict ourselves to historical figures that we know existed, then Mohammed is a pretty good choice. Genghis Khan is also pretty well known.

It's gotta be Julius Caesar right?
Everyone who knows about Julius Caesar would know about Alexander the Great as well. And there will be people in Central Asia who would know about Alexander without ever hearing about Julius Caesar.
 

kswiston

Member
And Moses is in the Torah, Bible and Quaran so the answer is Moses.

There's no real proof that Moses was a real person (more towards the opposite really), so I don't think he counts. The others were mystified after their deaths, but at least their existence is pretty well established.
 
It's probably a religious leader like Jesus or Moses.

If you want to think about someone from the last 50 years. I can see it being Obama or Trump. Being the US president when the world population is 7 billion people might mean that the most people ever recognize you.

I think Muhammad Ali has it for current day.
 

Oersted

Member
Jesus. Religious and Pop Icon in a way, hard to beat that. Mohammed and Moses are good calls, but they lack the massmedia impact.
 
I believe there are a lot of evidence pointing that Jesus existed. If he did all those miracles, well, that's another story.

I'm not a historical scholar, but it seems like most aspects of Jesus' life is in doubt other than a few basic things. This is putting aside the miraculous events.

So while historical Jesus most likely existed, his depiction is almost that of a fictions character. I suppose you could say the same thing about any religious or supernatural figure wherein the details are fuzzy but what is commonly represented are the potentially fabricated moments, miracles, etc. And I say potentially not to specifically doubt these things but to say that there is a separation between known fact and faith based belief - with some distant historical figures it's hard enough to nail down the facts, with important religioua figures it's exponentially more difficult.
 

Big-E

Member
Jesus wasn't famous in his own time so that doesn't count. Muhammad we have sources on so it will be him.
 
Does Hitler have a theme song?

Didn't think so

Jesus-laughimg.jpg
 
i was thinkg too of michael jordan over ali

That would put Kobe at least in the same breath, right? He's hugely popular in China. Don't know about other places like Africa or in the Middle East.

Jordan's brand is bigger, but I don't THINK he was as big in China as Kobe was during his day.
 

Ōkami

Member
The most famous sportsman ever is a football player, not something that can't really be argued.

Pele and Maradona are praised as gods in Brazil and Argentina, you'd have an easier time finding someone who knows about Messi or Cristiano Rolando today than any NBA player.
 
PSY・S;234356275 said:

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My initial thought after Jesus and Adolf Hitler was Genghis Khan. Now I know the areas that his empire covered may not all have been densely populated, but the sheer size of it had to come with some serious recognition. I'd be curious to see how he stacked up to Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great and such due to the drastic differences in the population densities.
 

JordanN

Banned
Even as an atheist, Jesus is the most famous.

You have to remember tons of kids who were just born were already exposed to him.
 

Cocaloch

Member
I'm not a historical scholar

The word is historian.

but it seems like most aspects of Jesus' life is in doubt other than a few basic things.

This is true for the overwhelming majority of people in the historical record.

So while historical Jesus most likely existed, his depiction is almost that of a fictions character..

I mean this is to some degree true for the majority of people we know well from before the early-modern period. Jesus moreso than many, but it's a question of degree not kind.

And I say potentially not to specifically doubt these things but to say that there is a separation between known fact and faith based belief - with some distant historical figures it's hard enough to nail down the facts, with important religioua figures it's exponentially more difficult.

You'll find that distinction is incredibly fuzzy until the 16th century or so.
 
Slight tangent, but does the perception of a figure versus historical evidence matter at all? For instance, most scholars believe there was a man named Jesus who at least a few events described in the Bible and other texts line up, but there is a big gap between historical evidence and what millions of people believe. Same with Muhammad, although my cursory Googling shows possibly less historical evidence that the man existed. The same might be true of the first Buddha.

But my point isn't specifically to say any one of these people didn't exist, but rather can they count if so little is actually known versus the widespread belief of events based on believers of their respective faiths?

Maybe it shouldn't matter at all. I don't know. Thoughts?
 
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