If we're going that route, I'd rather go with Alexander the Great.

All right, that's fair. If we go that route an take the Bible as being actual for the sake of this discussion, I'll go with the Biblical Jacob.

I'm pretty sure he's the only guy who ever put God in a headlock.

I would go with him too, but because he had 14+ kids with his two wives, and there maidservants. Oh, that and he changed his name to Israel, and it stuck.

If we want to take the bible as fact (and I am an atheist, so I don't), I'd sat it's whomever the Jew was that said "yo Romans, see that guy over there.. no, the guy to his right... yea yea that one... umm, that's Jesus"

I mean without that guy, Jesus would have just grown old and died. No one would remember him.

Caligula

The greatest man who ever lived? Here's what I think...

Every time a newspaper publishes a date (or even any time someone posts on this forum, since every post contains the date), it is a testimony to the centrality of Jesus Christ. When we call this the year 2010, we are acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the central focus of history. This is the year 2010 AD, 'in the year of our Lord'.

If that isn't influence, I don't know what is.

Though not Christian myself, I know a great many of them.  For many, it is a spiritual and emotional engagement, rather than an institutionalized one.

Whatever your problems with the modern-day religious establishment, there is little denying that Jesus Christ has touched the lives of more human beings than anyone else in history, and that by almost any unit of measurement, he should be included in any "Greatest Man" list of contenders you wish to raise.

@dtewi. He wasn't particularly crazy to be honest, though yes he was a dictator. And he was truly a great man, great doesn't mean good. Hitler was a great but terrible man.

@Montana. Alexander had far less impact after his death, his empire disintegrated far too quickly in my opinion.

I feel so dumb for not knowing many of the people you talk here despite princess diana, Julius Caesar and the mathematicians that we learn about at school...

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The Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire. Even after Rome fell they were still known as Romans for years before finally adopting the title of Byzantinium.

That's more of a testimony of the imense influence of the countries who happen to be Christian rather that the influence of Jesus himself. I doubt non-christians care very much about Jesus.