Who has made the biggest contributions to humankind?

[_harmony]

I'm so disappointed in our TBM's. Not one of them has nominated Joseph Smith! What's the matter, people?

[_Gazelam]

I think he said earlier that the closest branch to him is in like Oregon or something.

From a Jan 3rd post of his: "Im actualy a memember of the northern european pre-christian religion known as Asatru. It follows the norse pantheon (think vikings). Its prettey interesting. The symbol i have of my avatar is the triplehorn of odin. I first had on there the valknot, which is the symbol of an Asatruar."

The new search feature is nice.

[_moksha]

Over the long haul, I think certain key religious figures have had the most influence in shaping human history. The top three in my estimation would be Jesus, Mohammad and the Buddha.

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[_Coggins7]

I'm so disappointed in our TBM's. Not one of them has nominated Joseph Smith! What's the matter, people?

I nominated him on the previous page.

[_Ray A]

Who (or what organizations) do you think has made the biggest contributions to humankind, say in the last thousand years? I'm thinking in terms of helping our world, humankind, and society in general. People who have really impacted humankind or made huge advancements in how we treat others, how we care for our world, or bring forth greater compassion, understanding, and healing to each other.

I think this is like asking which ant deserves the most credit for building the nest, or which bee shaped the hive. Nevertheless I'll have a go. I think the pioneers in medicine have done the most to improve humanity, something we take for granted. Think of something as simple as bifocals. What happened to the caveman who lost his sight? I guess he eventually got eaten. Science in general deserves the most credit.

The heights by great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There is no one "great man", and this is sometimes known to historians as the "great man theory of history". Who is the "one figure" who shaped world destiny? None that I can think of. What some call "memes", or "synchronicity", is that seldom does one person tap into a great idea, but often one person gets the credit. Da Vinci was designing helicopters in the 15th century, and working on rudimentary plate tetonics.

As for organisations, I think Microsoft has brought the most meaning to life. Just look at you, reading this on your PC when you should be doing your laundry, or even at work, but then even at work you steal the bosses' time to post on MDB. The dog is no longer "man's best friend". Without my PC I would not have survived divorce, so I give Microsoft the prize.

[_Bond...James Bond]

My contributors to humankind (in no particular order)

1) Newton (hello physics, calculus)
2) Einstein (theory of relativity, who doesn't know e=mc2?)
3) The Wright Brothers (what has flight done for you lately?)
4) Gandhi (peaceful civil disobedience=fight the power!)
5) The guys that invented computers/the internet (bringing every idea imaginable to your living room since whenever)
6) Gutenberg (The written word. Influencing massive numbers of people since 1450. Who remembers books?)
7) Big 5 US Presidents: Washington (father of our country), Jefferson (from sea to shining sea), ,Lincoln (saving that Union), Roosevelt (Rough Rider, great mustache), FDR (strength during Depression, WW II)
8) All my favorite writers, producers of material both light and heavy (There's dozens of them---Shakespeare, Poe, Tennyson, Grisham, Crichton, King, O'Brian, Sinclair, Steinbeck, Tolkien, Wright, Lee, McCullough, Clancy etc etc etc etc.....etc)

since I can't thing of anymore:

9) Monty Python (nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!)
10) The Beatles (Revolver, Rubber Soul, White Album, Sgt. Peppers, Abbey Road, and all the singles=bloody great. Wink sucks!)

[_ajax18]

Then I'll say it. I can't think of anyone I'd admire more than Joseph Smith, and I'm not even a TBM. You could argue that I really didn't know who he was and that's true. At least the picture of Joseph Smith that is painted in Church, He's the type I would want to associate with, and in my view everything that a prophet should be. I still hold him in high esteem in spite of unbelief and I still have a picture of him over my desk. A genius, but not too proper to throw down and wrestle. Not a respecter of persons. Molded into greatness through suffering the hardships of poverty, disease, bad relationships. If I needed a friend, I"d still look up to him.

Now for the woman I admire most. I'd be hard pressed to find someone greater than Mary the mother of Jesus. By far one of the most influential people in human history, and yet she did not seem to have a lust for worldly honor and fame at all. I never liked the idea of the Catholics worshipping her, but in the same breath I can't help but see her as very underestimated in the eyes of most.

In America it's easy for us to forget how lucky we are to have had a revolutionary hero with the character of George Washington. Compare him to other men who have won revolutions in other lands and you'll see why we are very lucky to live in the U.S.A.

[_truth dancer]

I'm just thinking about those people who have made huge differences for the better, throughout the world. Not just people who are good examples but people who have significantly altered our world.

While it is easy to think of political leaders in our country, how much have they impacted the world at large?

Who has really brought big positive changes to the whole of humankind?

Who has contributed, (in big ways) to the evolution of consciousness and peace?

Who has positively revolutionized the way humans live?

Who has helped in the bringing forth healing, kindness, compassion, care and equality to the planet?

The printing press, the internet, glasses, the end of slavery, evolution, woman's rights, protection for children, advancements in food production, birth control, scientific advancements regarding health, are all GREAT contributions which revolutionized our world.

Expanding this idea.... how about including the big inventions/discoveries along with people that have altered the world for the better?

~dancer~

[_mentalgymnast]

hi TD. you asked:

Who has positively revolutionized the way humans live?

Who has helped in the bringing forth healing, kindness, compassion, care and equality to the planet?

MG:I think that if you want to get to the foundation of it all you'd have to go back to the Axial Age movers and shakers. During this period we see (from Wiki)

...the rise of Platonism, which would later become a major influence on the Western world through both Christian and secular thought throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Buddhism, another of the world's most influential philosophies, was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, or the Buddha, who lived during this period. In China, Confucianism arose during this era, where it remains a profound influence on social and religious life. Zoroastrianism, another of Jaspers' examples, is crucial to the development of monotheism.[3] Jaspers also included the authors of the Upanishads, Laozi, Homer, Socrates, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Thucydides, Archimedes, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Deutero-Isaiah as Axial figures. Jaspers held Socrates, Confucius and Siddhartha Gautama in especially high regard, describing them as exemplary human beings, or as a "paradigmatic personality".

What would the world be like today if the Axial Age of human history had been stunted or even squelched out completely for one reason or another? It's possible that Bill Gates, George Washington and all the rest of the "greats" would have been born into a different world where the possibilities for progress and enlightenment would have been altered or changed significantly.

Karen Armstrong argues that there was a second Axial Age. This period was known as the:

Enlightenment when the Age of Reason sought to establish axiomatic philosophy and absolutism as foundations for knowledge and stability. Epistemology, in the writings of Michel de Montaigne and René Descartes, was based on extreme skepticism and inquiry into the nature of "knowledge." The goal of a philosophy based on self-evident axioms reached its height with Baruch (Benedictus de) Spinoza's Ethics, which expounded a pantheistic view of the universe where God and Nature were one. This idea then became central to the Enlightenment from Newton through to Jefferson. The ideas of Pascal, Leibniz, Galileo and other philosophers of the previous period also contributed to and greatly influenced the Enlightenment; for instance, according to E. Cassirer, Leibniz’s treatise On Wisdom "... identified the central concept of the Enlightenment and sketched its theoretical programme" (Cassirer 1979: 121–123). There was a wave of change across European thinking, exemplified by Newton's natural philosophy, which combined mathematics of axiomatic proof with mechanics of physical observation...

It has been suggested that we are now in a third Axial Age. The third age may not have come about or been what it is without the movers and shakers of the first two.

Regards,
MG

[_wenglund]

While I think the question of this thread is one that is worthy of consideration (particularly in terms of highlighting people we may do well to emmulate), I am more inclined to focus on myself, and ask whether I am doing all that I reasonably can to contribute to improving the human condition and positioning myself and others well for the eternities to come (as I believe in it).

My current self-assessment shows some great improvement from the past, but also shows great room for improvement for the future. So, the wonderful process of personal growth and human development continues.

Thanks, -Wade Englund-