Who in history?

[Icarus]

In a philosophic discussion with a friend, He challenged me to the following. "Name one individual in history, whose influence you would eliminate for the purpose of improving the present day common good." You can go back as far in history as you want. It could be yesterday or it could be thousands of years in the past.  The premise is that no other person of equal and similar influence would have arisen to take his/her place 

Who would my erudite HAFers eliminate? ..................Hitler, Marx, Ghenghis Khan, Constantine, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph Smith, Jerry Fallwell ?  Naah! You can do better than any of those. Choose your own.   

[Tank]

This will need a little thinking about.

[Recusant]

Paul the Apostle would be fairly high on my list.

[Tank]

Paul the Apostle would be fairly high on my list.

My wife would totally agree with you.

[Firebird]

I was going to mention Imam Hamid al-Ghazali, who Neil DeGrasse Tyson often points to as a major reason that Islam strayed from its focus on scientific pursuits in favor of fundamentalist thought. But some quick research indicates that view is controversial, at best. Still, I'd consider him.

[OldGit]

Recusant's bagged St. Paul, so I'll go for the Emperor Constantine.  If I can't have him, how about Tony Blair?

[Firebird]

Actually, I'll take Mohammed.

[Tank]

Actually, I'll take Mohammed.

Abraham for me. Nip it all in the bud and hope things turn out better.

[No one]

I'd like to say the very first humanoid creature. (Whatever was the beginning of the insect crawling on the planet's face, sometimes known as the human race.)  Perhaps if it never existed, neither would they. 

[Tank]

I'd like to say the very first humanoid creature. (Whatever was the beginning of the insect crawling on the planet's face, sometimes known as the human race.)  Perhaps if it never existed, neither would they.

Unfortunately no such creature existed. Just a gene pool.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

The premise is that no other person of equal and similar influence would have arisen to take his/her place 

The premise is flawed.  It's impossible to know if eliminating one bad apple would have resulted in things getting better.  Look what the elimination of Saddam led in the ME. Sometimes bad guys in power prevent even worse guys from coming to power.  That being said, Muhammad is 10 times worse than St. Paul or Constantine.  But eliminating him might have led to something even worse.

[Icarus]

I have been pondering this question with no definitive answer forthcoming. Until I get a better handle on this dilemma I will nominate the Archangel Gabriel who occurs in Judeo Christian and Islamic fairy tales.  Gabriel was a real trouble maker. He delivered messages from god and the other god Allah.  He screwed up the heads of Daniel and a few other Christian characters and also Mohammed of Islamic fame. The winged horse that took Mo to talk to Allah is disqualified because he was an innocent horse,  not a human.

If seriously considered, a list of influential men/women could be made with their influence tabulated in descending order
of importance. Methinks that there have been a whole gang of apparently influential humans who have caused heaps of confusion and resulting strife including murders and outright genocide. 

I might include in the structured list of seemingly, innocent at the time, bad guys, that German dude, Gutenberg.  Him for inventing a way to duplicate whatever bible he was using. No fair. If not Gutenberg, someone else would have developed a workable printing press. He gets a free pass. Somewhere on the list we might place Charlemagne (circa 800 CE) the holy Roman emperor  who ordered a standardized version of the Vulgate translation, the Alcuin Bible.....or the first major bible translation in English by followers of dissident theologian John Wycliffe (circa 1382).  James the First ain't getting off the list. After his sister Elizabeth died in 1604, he reversed her catholic course and ordered the new English translation of the Geneva bible which was published in 1611. James shrewdly had a committee of 54 scholars do the work of writing the KJV.

In fairness to all those that we may indict as villains, I suspect that they were all espousing what they sincerely believed to be the inviolable truth.  Well, not that damned angel Gabriel.

Mean while, on with the fun.

[No one]

The person that started rap.
Yes people.
The original K from the klan.
Fred Durst.
Matt Affleck.
Dinkleberg.
The person that started rap.
Mark David Chapman.