The impact of Jesus on human history is so obivious and so enourmous that thew people would question his placement near the top of this list. Indeed, the more likely question is Jesus who is the inspirator of the most infleuntial religion in history, has not been placed first. There is no question that Christianity, over the course of time, has had more adherents than any other religion. Christianity, unlike Islam, wasn't founded by a single-person , but rather two people, and they were Jesus Christ and St Paul. Many scholars argue that St Paul was the founder of Christianity, but it is simply clear without Jesus, Christianity would have surely not exist. The Christian theology however was shaped by St Paul during the first century A.D., and it is hard to know what Christanity wouldn't been like, without St Paul. Jesus formulated the basic ethical ideas of Christianity, as well as it's basic spiritual outlook and its main ideas concerning human conduct. Paul added the worship of Christ. Furthermore, St Paul was the author of a considerable portion of the New Testament, and was the main proselytizing force for Christainity during the first century A.D.. Jesus was fairly young when he died (unlike Buddha and Muhammad), and he left behind a limited number of disciples. However, it does not seem reasonable to consider Jesus responsible for all the things which the Christian churches or individual Christians later did in his name, particularly since he would obiviously dissaprove of many of those things. Some of them including the bloody Christian wars between different Christian sects, and the barbaric massacres and persecution of the Jews, and it is wrong to say that Jesus inspired them, simply because he would have dissaproved of it. Modern science first arose in the Christian nations of western Europe, and it seems inappropriate to think of Jesus was responsible for the rise of science. Modern science developed, not during the heyday of church power and Christian piety, but rather on the heels of the Renaissance a period during which Europe experienced a renewal of interest in it's pre-Christian heritage, and during the Renaissance, the scientific works of Aristotle and Euclid were re-discovered during the Renaissance. The story of Jesus life , is told in the New Testament, in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. According to the gospels, Jesus was born in Bethelehelm in the Roman province of Judea, around about 6BC, during the reign of the great Roman emperor Augustus Cesaer. It is not really known what his real name was, but it was probably, Yehoshua (Joshua in English). As a youngman he became a carpenter, and by the time he was in his twenties he began to preach in God, and had a great number of disciples. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, his cousin, he was told about the coming kingdom of God, and around about 30AD, he was seen as a threat by Jewish conservative priests as a threat, and because of that, he was tried before a Roman governor, Pontus Pilate, and was condemned to death by crucification. And a thew days after his death, he had claimed o have risen from the dead, and then he ascended to heaven, as it said in the New Testament. In the book of Revelation,in one of the last books of the New Testament, it is said of his third coming on earth , sometime in the deep distant future. Jesus was similar to the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament, and he himself was a devout jew. Like the prophets, Jesus had an extradonary personality. During his lifetime he performed many miracles, but his infleunce still remained powerful, even before St Paul converted himself to Christianity. However,in sharp contrast to Muhammad, who exercised political as well as religious authority, Jesus virtually had no infleunce on the political developement, during his own lifetime, or during the suceeding century. Both men, of course, have had an enourmous indirect infleunce on long-term political developements. Jesus made his infleunce felt entirely as an ethical and spiritual leader. If it was primarily as an ethical leader that Jesus left his mark, it is surely pertinent to ask to what extent his ethical ideas have infleunced the world. One of Jesus central precepts, certainly, was the Golden rule. Today, the Golden Rule is accepted by most people, Christians and non-Christians alike, as a reasonable guide to moral conduct. We may not always act in accordance with it, but we usually try to do so. If Jesus had actually originated that almost universally accepted principle, he would surely have been the first man on this list. In fact, though, the Golden Rule was an accepted precept of Judaism long before Jesus was born. Rabbi Hallel, the leading Jewish Rabbi of the First century B.C., explicitly enunciated the Golden Rule and pronounced it the foremost principle of Judaism. Nor was the notion known only to the Western world. The Chinesse philosopher Confucious had proposed it in about 500BC, and the saying also appears in the Mahabharata, an ancient Hindu poem. In fact, the philosophy behind the Golden Rule is accepted by almost every major religious group. Does this mean that Jesus had no original ethical ideas? Not at all! A highly distinctive viewpoint is presented in Matthew 5:43-44: Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. And a few lines earlier: "...resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Now, these ideas-which were not a part of the Judaism of Jesus' day , nor of most other religions-are surely among the most remarkable and original ethical ideas ever presented. If they were widely followed, I would have no hesitation in placing Jesus first in this website. But the truth is that they are not widely followed. In fact, they are not generally accepted. Most Christians consider the injunction to "Love your enemy" as-at most-an ideal which might be realized in some perfect world, but one which is not reasonable guide to conduct in the actual world we live in. We do not normally practise it, do not expect others to practise it, and do not teach our children to practise it. Jesus' most distinctive teaching, therefore, remains an intriguing but basically untried suggestion.