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favorite historical figure?

Started by redpaint417, August 12, 2015, 04:30:55 AM

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redpaint417

Who is your favorite historical figure? Why is that person your favorite historical figure? Do you see this person as a role model?


Munch

Eleanor of Aquitaine



http://britishheritage.com/eleanor-of-aquitaine/

One of the reasons I find her story very interesting, is after learning I'm a distant decedent of hers. Of course this goes for any monarch that had many children, but reading her story I found it all the more fascinating knowing i'm from her bloodline.

Though like many monarchs to who were heavily steeped in religious background, it was just a product of the time, whats more intresting his just how strong she was in her endeavors both on the battlefield with her handmaidens, and in her cause to maintain political stability between england and france, she suffered to being in a loveless marriage, and yet did everything for her children.

Humble, intelligent, modest and politically forthright, unlike many other monarchs in the family line who i really hate reading about at how disgusting some of them were, she wasn't one of them, and I hold her it higher regard.
'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

aitm

Ghengis Khan. Conquered the world on a fucking horse with a bow and arrow. "Mercy is the seed of regret". The wonderful historian and Khan expert Harold Lamb wrote several books about the man. Good stuff.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

PopeyesPappy

Quote from: aitm on August 12, 2015, 10:38:20 AM
Ghengis Khan. Conquered the world on a fucking horse with a bow and arrow. "Mercy is the seed of regret". The wonderful historian and Khan expert Harold Lamb wrote several books about the man. Good stuff.

Not to mention the direct ancestor of about 16 million currently living men.
Save a life. Adopt a Greyhound.

Solitary

Lilith----just kidding. Nicola Tesla that gave us every modern invention that moved science and technology ahead so we can have a better life with AC electricity and his many inventions we cannot do without today. Even the electronics in our cars are a result of his research. It has taken modern science to make his invention practical today. He was so far ahead of his time its unbelievable, but he is sure not a role model with is dislike of fat people and his mistreatment of them. I would say this is true of all geniuses, that they are not role models. In every field of endeavor has shown this to be true, from the arts, to science, to politicians, to leaders, even Buddha who left his family in the brink. I wouldn't even say Mahatma Gandhi was a roll model running around in diapers.  :biggrin2:
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

Unbeliever

It's hard to pick a real favorite, but I like George Price quite a bit.

His math told him there could be no true altruism in the world, but he couldn't accept that outcome of his own math; so he set out to prove wrong the equation he'd derived.

He gave away everything he had, and then killed himself.

Morphy is called "the pride and sorrow of chess," and I see Price as "the pride and sorrow of math."
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Termin

Marilyn Monroe .







I may be taking this too literally :)
Termin 1:1

Evolution is probably the slowest biological process on planet earth, the only one that comes close is the understanding of it by creationists.

Mike Cl

Quote from: Termin on August 12, 2015, 07:56:15 PM
Marilyn Monroe .







I may be taking this too literally :)
No, not at all.  You are spot on!  Or maybe Sophia Loren.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

peacewithoutgod

#8
Benjamin Franklin - scientist, inventor, persuasive proponent of church/state separation, and probably as close to being atheist as anyone of his generation who ever went as far as he did in politics. Also the only politician other who I like. Incredibly enough, there may be a few today who will like as long as I don't learn too much of them, but they aren't history yet. As for what we really know about any historical figures, the best part of studying history is knowing that we don't have to worry about said figures anymore - you can quote those who look great all you want now, and they can't make you regret it later through their subsequent actions.
There are two types of ideas: fact and non-fact. Ideas which are not falsifiable are non-fact, therefore please don't insist your fantasies of supernatural beings are in any way factual.

Doctrine = not to be questioned = not to be proven = not fact. When you declare your doctrine fact, you lie.

Mike Cl

Quote from: peacewithoutgod on August 13, 2015, 03:49:41 AM
Benjamin Franklin - scientist, inventor, persuasive proponent of church/state separation, and probably as close to being atheist as anyone of his generation who ever went as far as he did in politics. Also the only politician other who I like. Incredibly enough, there may be a few today who will like as long as I don't learn too much of them, but they aren't history yet. As for what we really know about any historical figures, the best part of studying history is knowing that we don't have to worry about said figures anymore - you can quote those who look great all you want now, and they can't make you regret it later through their subsequent actions.
Yeah, I take that same tack as you when thinking of hero's.  I now tend to think that people can do hero actions, but it is hard to find one who lived an entire heroic life.  Maybe my standards are too rigid. I learned that form sports.  My first hero's were football players and later baseball players.  Frank Gifford was my first hero and I wanted to be just like him.  Then I grew to love baseball and the Yankees and of course, I idolized Babe Ruth.  As I became older I read all I could about the man.  It slowly dawned on me that he is not a person to show me how to live.  Reading about Mickey Mantle showed me the same thing.  And then on to the other 'hero's'--George Washington, and all the other hero's of US history.  None were free of blemish.  But then, they were simply people. 

But I still have favorites.  And I realize all have clay feet.  But I have too many to single out one--Babe Ruth, of course and Mickey Mantle.  Otto von Bismark, Franklin, Lincoln, Fredric Douglas, George Carlin--and I could go on.  And I still have quite a few baseball hero's--Jeter for one--but I'll be damned if I'll ever read his life's story.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Hakurei Reimu

Thomas Edison. Say what you will about how he stole a lot of stuff from his flunkies and rivals, but one of his contributions was the big one, and was genuinely his.

Edison invented the industrial laboratory.

An industrial laboratory is what turns an invention into a product. It refines a proof of concept to an item that people would use in a practical setting, and in a form that may be mass-produced. It's what turns an idea that might change your life into something that does change your life, on a massive scale. Nikola Tesla might have been long on bright ideas, but very short on business sense; his inventions got nowhere until Edison's industrial laboratories refined them into products. The light bulb was a bright idea, but it took Edison to pore through thousands of materials to find out the right material for that filament, and to realize that the best way to maintain the life of the bulb was to fill it with an inert gas, not leave it as a vacuum.

Without the industrial laboratory, the modern world would not exist. Full stop.
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Gawdzilla Sama

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is my favorite historical character, the most interesting US president and a subject of endless speculations. It's fun to pile them up beside each other and let them fight it out.

And I'd never want to be him, too much work being FDR.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

dtq123

Hatsune Miku! Oh, wait... Wrong Section :eyes:
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CrucifyCindy

The Marquis de Sade. Gretaest philosopher ever.
“Rational thought is a failed experiment and should be phased out.”
 William S. Burroughs

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aitm

Quote from: CrucifyCindy on August 13, 2015, 11:30:59 AM
The Marquis de Sade. Gretaest philosopher ever.
He kept company with priests and bishops...a right lovely triangle of righteousness and purity.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust