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First of all, the life of Christ is not even an eligible candidate for the subject of this thread. It calls for a SINGLE EVENT that was most significant. Do you consider your entire life to be a single event? Even the crucifixion or the resurrection was not a "significant" event. Given the body of work that is represented in the New Testament, the entire life of Christ and his teachings and his actions would have influenced human culture, even without the events associated with his death, and that life would have no doubt been heralded as Godly, even without the crucifixion and resurrection (assuming for a moment that those events took place at all.)
Translating it into an American microcosm, it's like saying the assassination of Abraham Lincoln was the most significant event in US history, completely disregarding the durable importance of the Lincoln presidency, or that the entire life of Lincoln was the most significant "event" in US history. Neither could be true. It's like saying that the aggregate of Lincoln's work was a single event, or that his life would have been insignificant if he had died of old age in retirement.
If there is one single event in human history that changed everything about humanity what would it be?
I'd have to vote for the Industrial Revolution (and yes, it is more of a series of events). I think it resulted in the greatest number of changes, both good and bad, than anything else I can think of.
The invention of the Salk Vaccine against polio, and, a few years earlier, the invention of the Vespa.
These are not unrealistic nominations.
Polio, since it was rarely fatal and intensely debilitating, is surely one of the most dreaded diseases in the history of mankind, and I believe the first to ever be virtually extirpated from the human condition.
The Vespa triggered a huge leap of human mobility, since it was affordable by hundreds of millions who lacked the affluence to own or drive an automobile or even a standard motorcycle. Vehicles like the Vespa are nearly universal in quite a few countries. The Vespa has brought immediacy of affordable private transport to more people more quickly than Ford ever did.
Interesting thread. I don't think I could put my hand on a single event, but there are a few that stand out and I think definitely changed humanity big time. I realize some of these happened over time.
Agriculture (domestication of crops and animals). This changed us from hunter gatherer nomads and allowed us to stay put and build our first cities and civilizations.
Writing. For the first time we were able to capture words and retain / share them. Before this, knowledge was shared through story telling, but once we learned how to write, knowledge could actually be stored outside of human heads and passed on even after the person with the knowledge passed away.
Discovery of bacteria. Led to the introduction of vaccines and medication, allowing us to battle diseases that had previously killed hundreds of millions of people.
The invention of the atomic bomb. Gave us the power to wipe out the entire planet in minutes.
The internet. I think this one is much more significant than we realize. Since the internet, average people can have nearly immediate access to just about all of the world's knowledge. It's like having all of the world's libraries, news, and information at our fingertips, available within seconds anytime we want.
I've given the matter more thought and it dawns on me that the single most significant event in human history, for each of us, is our conception. If we aren't born, then none of the rest of the world is of any concern to us, is it? The largest volcanic eruption, the most attrition heavy and widespread war, the size of the most powerful empires, the genius of the most brilliant artists or scientists...none of that is of any consequence whatsoever to someone who has never existed.
I would think the invention of fire, whenever that was. Everything we use is basically a tool to do something else, so the first guy to figure out that you can beat some animal overhead with a rock was quite the innovator of his time.
Fire was a discovery, not an invention. I know: Picky, picky, picky.
I have to come down on the side of Jesus not being a candidate. I was never much into fairy tales, especially ones that were written two thousand years ago and were then mangled by men who were, apparently, afraid of women to the point that they turned them into whores in their story.
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