Wednesday 10 April 2013

Top 100 personalities in history

Rank Name Religious Affiliation Influence
1. Muhammad Islam Prophet of Islam; conqueror of Arabia; Hart recognized that ranking Muhammad first might be controversial, but felt that, from a secular historian's perspective, this was the correct choice because Muhammad is the only man to have been both a founder of a major world religion and a major military/political leader. More


2. Isaac Newton Anglican (rejected Trinitarianism, i.e.,
Athanasianism; believed in the Arianism
of the Primitive Church)
physicist; theory of universal gravitation; laws of motion


3. Jesus Christ *
Judaism; Christianity founder of Christianity


4. Buddha Hinduism; Buddhism founder of Buddhism
5. Confucius Confucianism founder of Confucianism

6. St. Paul Judaism; Christianity proselytizer of Christianity
7. Ts'ai Lun Chinese traditional religion inventor of paper
8. Johann Gutenberg Catholic developed movable type; printed Bibles
9. Christopher Columbus Catholic explorer; led Europe to Americas
10. Albert Einstein Jewish
physicist; relativity; Einsteinian physics

11. Louis Pasteur Catholic scientist; pasteurization
12. Galileo Galileo Catholic
astronomer; accurately described heliocentric solar system
13. Aristotle Platonism / Greek philosophy
influential Greek philosopher
14. Euclid Platonism / Greek philosophy mathematician; Euclidian geometry

15. Moses Judaism major prophet of Judaism
16. Charles Darwin Anglican (nominal); Unitarian
biologist; described Darwinian evolution, which had theological impact on many religions
17. Shih Huang Ti Chinese traditional religion Chinese emperor

18. Augustus Caesar Roman state paganism ruler
19. Nicolaus Copernicus Catholic (priest)
astronomer; taught heliocentricity
20. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier Catholic
father of modern chemistry; philosopher; economist

21. Constantine the Great Roman state paganism; Christianity Roman emperor who completely legalized Christianity, leading to its status as state religion. Convened the First Council of Nicaea that produced the Nicene Creed, which rejected Arianism (one of two major strains of Christian thought) and established Athanasianism (Trinitarianism, the other strain) as "official doctrine."
22. James Watt Presbyterian (lapsed)
developed steam engine
23. Michael Faraday Sandemanian
physicist; chemist; discovery of magneto-electricity
24. James Clerk Maxwell Presbyterian; Anglican; Baptist
physicist; electromagnetic spectrum
25. Martin Luther Catholic; Lutheran founder of Protestantism and Lutheranism

26. George Washington Episcopalian
first president of United States
27. Karl Marx Jewish; Lutheran;
Atheist; Marxism/Communism
founder of Marxism, Marxist Communism
28. Orville and Wilbur Wright United Brethren
inventors of airplane

29. Genghis Khan Mongolian shamanism Mongol conqueror
30. Adam Smith Liberal Protestant economist; philosopher; expositor of capitalism; author: The Theory of Moral Sentiments

31. Edward de Vere
a.k.a. William Shakespeare Catholic; Anglican
literature; also wrote 6 volumes about philosophy and religion
32. John Dalton Quaker
chemist; physicist; atomic theory; law of partial pressures (Dalton's law)
33. Alexander the Great Greek state paganism conqueror
34. Napoleon Bonaparte Catholic (nominal)
French conqueror

35. Thomas Edison Congregationalist; agnostic
inventor of light bulb, phonograph, etc.
36. Antony van Leeuwenhoek Dutch Reformed
microscopes; studied microscopic life
37. William T.G. Morton ?? pioneer in anesthesiology
38. Guglielmo Marconi Catholic and Anglican
inventor of radio

39. Adolf Hitler Nazism; born/raised in, but rejected Catholicism
conqueror; led Axis Powers in WWII
40. Plato Platonism / Greek philosophy
founder of Platonism
41. Oliver Cromwell Puritan (Protestant) British political and military leader
42. Alexander Graham Bell Unitarian/Universalist inventor of telephone *


43. Alexander Fleming Catholic penicillin; advances in bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy
44. John Locke raised Puritan (Anglican);
Liberal Christian
philosopher and liberal theologian
45. Ludwig van Beethoven Catholic
composer

46. Werner Heisenberg Lutheran
a founder of quantum mechanics; discovered principle of uncertainty; head of Nazi Germany's nuclear program
47. Louis Daguerre ?? an inventor/pioneer of photography
48. Simon Bolivar Catholic (nominal); Atheist
National hero of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia

49. Rene Descartes Catholic
Rationalist philosopher and mathematician
50. Michelangelo Catholic
painter; sculptor; architect
51. Pope Urban II Catholic called for First Crusade
52. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab Islam Second Caliph; expanded Muslim empire
53. Asoka Buddhism king of India who converted to and spread Buddhism
54. St. Augustine Greek state paganism; Manicheanism; Catholic
Early Christian theologian

55. William Harvey Anglican (nominal)
described the circulation of blood; wrote Essays on the Generation of Animals, the basis for modern embryology
56. Ernest Rutherford ?? physicist; pioneer of subatomic physics

57. John Calvin Protestant; Calvinism Protestant reformer; founder of Calvinism
58. Gregor Mendel Catholic (Augustinian monk)
Mendelian genetics
59. Max Planck Protestant
physicist; thermodynamics
60. Joseph Lister Quaker principal discoverer of antiseptics which greatly reduced surgical mortality
61. Nikolaus August Otto ?? built first four-stroke internal combustion engine

62. Francisco Pizarro Catholic Spanish conqueror in South America; defeated Incas
63. Hernando Cortes Catholic conquered Mexico for Spain; through war and introduction of new diseases he largely destroyed Aztec civilization
64. Thomas Jefferson Episcopalian; Deist
3rd president of United States
65. Queen Isabella I Catholic Spanish ruler
66. Joseph Stalin Russian Orthodox; Atheist; Marxism
revolutionary and ruler of USSR

67. Julius Caesar Roman state paganism Roman emperor
68. William the Conqueror Catholic laid foundation of modern England
69. Sigmund Freud Jewish; atheist; Freudian psychology/psychoanalysis
founded Freudian school of psychology/psychoanalysis (i.e., the "religion of Freudianism")
70. Edward Jenner Anglican
discoverer of the vaccination for smallpox

71. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen ?? discovered X-rays
72. Johann Sebastian Bach Lutheran; Catholic composer
73. Lao Tzu Taoism founder of Taoism
74. Voltaire raised in Jansenism;
later Deist
writer and philosopher; wrote Candide
75. Johannes Kepler Lutheran
astronomer; planetary motions
76. Enrico Fermi Catholic
initiated the atomic age; father of atom bomb
77. Leonhard Euler Calvinist
physicist; mathematician; differential and integral calculus and algebra

78 Jean-Jacques Rousseau born Protestant;
converted as a teen to Catholic;
later Deist French deistic philosopher and author
79. Nicoli Machiavelli Catholic wrote The Prince (influential political treatise)
80. Thomas Malthus Anglican (cleric) economist; wrote Essay on the Principle of Population
81. John F. Kennedy Catholic
U.S. President who led first successful effort by humans to travel to another "planet"
82. Gregory Pincus Jewish
endocrinologist; developed birth-control pill
83. Mani Manicheanism founder of Manicheanism, once a world religion which rivaled Christianity in strength
84. Lenin Russian Orthodox;
Atheist; Marxism/Communism
Russian ruler

85. Sui Wen Ti Chinese traditional religion unified China
86. Vasco da Gama Catholic navigator; discovered route from Europe to India around Cape Hood
87. Cyrus the Great Zoroastrianism founder of Persian empire
88. Peter the Great Russian Orthodox forged Russia into a great European nation
89. Mao Zedong Atheist; Communism; Maoism founder of Maoism, Chinese form of Communism
90. Francis Bacon Anglican
philosopher; delineated inductive scientific method
91. Henry Ford Protestant developed automobile; achievement in manufacturing and assembly
92. Mencius Confucianism philosopher; founder of a school of Confucianism

93. Zoroaster Zoroastrianism founder of Zoroastrianism
94. Queen Elizabeth I Anglican British monarch; restored Church of England to power after Queen Mary
95. Mikhail Gorbachev Russian Orthodox
Russian premier who helped end Communism in USSR
96. Menes Egyptian paganism unified Upper and Lower Egypt
97. Charlemagne Catholic Holy Roman Empire created with his baptism in 800 AD
98. Homer Greek paganism epic poet
99. Justinian I Catholic Roman emperor; reconquered Mediterranean empire; accelerated Catholic-Monophysite schism

100. Mahavira Hinduism; Jainism founder of Jainism
Source of list of names: Hart, Michael H. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Revised and Updated for the Nineties. New York: Carol Publishing Group/Citadel Press; first published in 1978, reprinted with minor revisions (reflected above) in 1992.


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