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Hmm ... I’ve had time to rethink me earlier response and a few thing have occurred to me. First, if we are so assume everything said about Jesus is true (and lets for the sake of argument here) then I would have to maintain that as wonderful as his birth may have been, and outstanding as his life and teachings were, the greatest event (and this is really what we remember him for) was Jesus’ death and resurrection. Without this final event, then, Jesus would have been just another profit no different from the rest. But if we believe that this final event in Jesus’ life actually took place, then this single event is the most important in human history (that is if we are most concerned with events and not merely people).
Now if we are talking about the most influential person in history then the answer may well be different. If we want to continue focusing on biblical figures, Paul is arguably much more influential then Jesus was. Paul shaped the early church in his own image and wrote most of the new testament. We see probably more church doctrine passed off of Paul’s writings then any off Jesus’ teachings (because obviously he never wrote anything).
However, if we are looking for someone who has had an even greater impact on world history, in my mind Aristotle is the man. Not only was he the teacher of Alexander the Great, but Aristotelian ideals are what shaped western culture, including much of early church doctrine.
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