re: The greatest persons to ever walk the Earth?

People are reaching soooo much.

Excluding religious figures because I don't want to open that can of worms

Alexander the Great- I honestly think the guy as a leader is super overrated but there's no doubting the effect he had. By destroying the Persian empire and the power vacccumnthat caused, the modern world was allowed to be forged.

Augustus- Brilliant politician and leader who converted the failed Roman Republic into the Roman Empire and did such a good job that people at the time barely noticed. He initiated the Pax Romana- 150 years of peace.

Ghenghis Khan- went from slave to leader of the greatest conqueroing force the world has ever seen. He shaped the modern world

Napoleon- people severely underrate Napoleon as a civic leader. The Napoleonic Code was one of the most important documents ever produced and emphasized simple clear laws that dragged Europe into the modern age

Winston Churchill- man was a badass. Enough said.

Religious people aside

Da Vinci
Alexander the Great
Shakespeare
Thomas Jefferson
Aristotle

Da Vinci
Aristotle
Newton
And......George fricking Washington who froze balls 2 winters at the river with our fellow soldiers! !!!!!##

da vinci is one of a kind. wasnt a genius at just one thing...but seemingly everything. the arts, anatomy and medicine, astronomy, inventor etc etc

since we can only pick one...how can it not be him?

newton, Einstein, washington, Jefferson, Alexander etc are all good choices...but da Vinci sets himself apart.

tesla is my biggest hero btw

1. Jesus/God
2. Moses
3. Paul
4. Noah/Abraham/john
5. MLK

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Common misconception. Jefferson and Paine were best buds and decided if The Declaration of Independence came from Jefferson, it would have more credibility.

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lol you're dumb. Thomas Jefferson didn't get with his "friends" and write the Declaration of Independence. He was selected by a committee to write it and then every line was criticted and scrutinized by that committee (including John Adams, Ben Franklin, and many others).

His ideas are similar to Lockes and they very well may have been friends, but they didn't get together, write it, and decide it looked better coming from Thomas Jefferson

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There's no physical proof Jesus ever existed

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Even most atheist historians acknowledge there was a historical Jesus. One could argue about the miracles, but it's widely accepted by most serious historians that an itinerant Jewish teacher named Jesus existed.

Also, this argument has always amused me. Atheists, who claim to only use logic and facts, commit a serious logical fallacy when advancing this argument. Check out the Argument from Silence.

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lol you're dumb. Thomas Jefferson didn't get with his "friends" and write the Declaration of Independence

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Lol. You're uninformed. Jefferson showed up with the whole document written. The committee struck out the "no slavery" portion. Did a re-write and that was that. I swear, the myths some of you people believe.

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Jefferson showed up with the whole document written. The committee struck out the "no slavery" portion. Did a re-write and that was that. I swear, the myths some of you people believe.

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Ah but you don't have all the facts
Thomas Jefferson was selected to write the DOI by a group of people. He then wrote it by himself (or perhaps with Thomas Paines help as you suggest). He then brought the DOI back to the committee for approval where they struck out a few things (including the no slaves clause).

ETA: from the Monticello website

The Committee of Five

Congress picked a committee to write a declaration explaining why the colonies wanted independence. They chose John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.

Jefferson was not a great speaker. John Adams said of Jefferson, "During the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I never heard him utter three sentences together." But he was known for his writing skills. The committee of five men picked Jefferson to write the declaration proclaiming the independence of the colonies.
Writing the First Drafts of the Declaration

The committee met several times to talk about ideas and organization. Then Jefferson drafted (made a rough copy) a declaration. He worked for two and a half weeks in the parlor of his rented rooms in a brick building on Market and Seventh Streets in Philadelphia.

Jefferson would rise before dawn and have tea and biscuits. He’d sit down at his "plain, neat, convenient" writing desk that he had designed. He wrote with a quill pen, ripping up many drafts. A small piece of an early draft remains. It shows how he changed many of his words.