Who would you erase from human history?

My choice would be "Ugh", first caveman.

B,

I'm afraid that the only way you might "create a more peaceful world" by eliminating an individual would be to takeout the ancestor of us all. Even without human beings, the world is not a peaceful place. After all, the concept "peace", as opposed to struggle for existence, is human.

In a way even the notion of peace is related to struggle and contention. Our ancestors found that Homo Sap was greatly over matched in speed, sight, smell, fang and claw. So we concentrated on cooperation and clever. That certainly helped against the beasts of the field, but other tribes were just as cooperative and clever as our own. Thus, began the eternal struggle between offense and defence, and ultimately the military arts.

Struggle and competition aren't without their compensations. Would our species really have been better off if survival had been less precarious? It might be argued that in the absence of struggle for territory and resource that we would still be nothing but reasonably clever hunters and gatherers. Why invent civilization if peace and plenty were perpetual? Of course, that's all material for science fiction. Humans live on a planet with limited resources, and our history could hardly be altered in any way that would eliminate our competitive drive and propensity for using force to settle disputes.

my father

God

Bush.

Sorry folks, I sat here contemplating persons from Hitler to Jesus, from Mother Teresa to Heraclitus. Bush is the only one I truely feel personal angst towards (Hitler is a close second).

Marvin Swartz, I really hate that dude!

Abraham Lincoln.

you're a little late for that party.

After much, much thinking on this subject...

BumbleBeeBoogie.

You with me, people?

Yeah, but we are still paying dearly for his mistake.

Tell me why, ebrown.

Asherman
Asherman, yes, I know. But would you approve eliminating the origins of the Abrahamic religions to reduce religious conflict in the world?

BBB

One is certainly tempted to say yes to that Bee. The Abrahamic faiths have motivated more violence than any other religion I can think of, except perhaps the Meso-American religions that needed a bushel of so of fresh hearts each day to help the sun rise. Of course, with them we think it was considered an honor to have your heart torn out with an obsidian blade. If the Abrahamics hadn't come along, perhaps another monotheistic bunch would have taken their place. I guess I'm getting soft on the subject as I get older.

I wonder too.

Slappy


Does this mean you aren't going marry me as you promised?

BBB

Lincoln's goal and main accomplishment was to keep people who didn't want to be part of the United States from leaving at the cost of tens of thousands of lives.

The result was a deeply divided Union, and these divisions still plague us today.

Were it not for this mistake, the Confederate states could have the Christian nation they still are longing for, and the United States could build a secular Democracy with liberty and justice for all.

The problems we are wrestling with now-- seperation of church and state, stem cell research, the controversy of teaching science in schools-- would be easy to resolve had the Confederate succession succeeded.

I bet we would have avoided the current mess in Iraq had we been able to avoid the Civil war.

Wow

So Abraham Lincoln is responsible for all that. Not only did he change the entire course of the American destiny, but he is responsbile for today's war in Iraq. Little did he know

Mohamed.

John Wilkes Booth

If Booth hadn't have assassinated Lincoln, the abuses of reconstruction could have been avoided.

Rap