What is the most significant event in the history of mankind

[Trey of Diamonds]

Yes religiously and probably historically... look at the impact of Christianity on the world, both good or ill...

I understand, but why is Christianity's impact more significant than Buddism, Islam or any other religion?

 

[Luminous]

The reemergence of the Pastafari faith with the founding of The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in 2005 by Bobby Henderson (pasta be upon him).
R'Amen.

 

[boristhescot]

Fire. Definitely fire.

 

[Arlanbb]

BORISTHESCOT ~ YES, YES, YES FIRE and without the TOOTHPICK you can NOT have FIRE.

 

[Jeremiah]

Maybe not the most significant but the invention of the Internet (as mentioned by Lawrence) definitely deserves it's rank among the greats. Never before has humankind had such an abundant access to diverse worldwide interaction. With the greatness collection of information ever. All at the touch of a button and all but free. It is not even bound by bulky home computers anymore. A person can very cheaply carry a little phone with access to info on almost any question. Not only that but thousands of thoughts and opinions by others on just about any subject.

 

[Valjean]

The Pleistocene epoch.

During the previous Pliocene, hominids were a tiny, endangered family of apes that had been eking a tenuous existence from the African veldt for a million years or so. There was no reason to think they would ever improve their precarious position and thrive, and a good case to be made for their eventual extinction.

With the climate change that marked the advent of the Pleistocene, however, groups of these odd, fragile, bipedal apes migrated North, out of Africa and into Europe and Asia. And the rest is history.

The vicissitudes of the Pleistocene glacial periods forged hominids into a tough, intelligent, resourcesful species that quickly spread to all corners of the globe.

 

[Mister Emu]

I understand, but why is Christianity's impact more significant than Buddism, Islam or any other religion?

Perhaps it is a failing of my education(which I largely take into my own hands, so a failing of mine ) but from my, albeit light, world history knowledge, Buddhism has not had as much an impact on the world at large...

From that possibly faulty knowledge, I'd say Islam is the only religion that comes close and may be equal in historical impact...

 

[lamplighter]

I'm surprised no one's brought up flight, without the airplane the world would be a munch different place than it is today. I would also have to say that Christianity was a rather significant event in human history as well, all the war, persecutions, suppression and influence it's caused. But I think out of all the events, fire would have to be number one, without fire we couldn't survive in harsher climates, we wouldn't have beer, and we wouldn't have bread or rice, two very important staples of the human diet.

 

[Arlanbb]

Without FIRE and TOOTHPICKS to help start it you wouldn't be able to melt the raw metal to build your airplane - FIRE is #1

 

[Quagmire]

Probably the most significant event in human history was the adoption of meat into our ancestors diet.

Every other innovation--language, technology, abstract thinking--- was the result of this.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

But I think out of all the events, fire would have to be number one,

Fire is hard to conceptualize as we have no memory of its harnessing. We don't know what was involved in overcoming the primitive fear of the burning tree to finally take up the fiery branch and put it to use. Without that knowledge how do we know just how significant that event really was. Although, I've sometimes wondered if the burning bush is some kind of racial memory of early mans dealing with fire.

 

[Jeremiah]

Probably the most significant event in human history was the adoption of meat into our ancestors diet.

Every other innovation--language, technology, abstract thinking--- was the result of this.

I don't know if you could say that there was an actual adoption of meat into our diets. Humans have always been meat eaters anything before that is prehuman. Your event does not seem like one within human history is what I am trying to say.

 

[lamplighter]

Without FIRE and TOOTHPICKS to help start it you wouldn't be able to melt the raw metal to build your airplane - FIRE is #1

I already said fire was probably number one!
Also without fire we can't really eat allot of meat, we can handle raw if it's freshly killed within an hour but cooking it removes allot of parasites and diseases.

 

[Quagmire]

I don't know if you could say that there was an actual adoption of meat into our diets. Humans have always been meat eaters anything before that is prehuman. Your event does not seem like one within human history is what I am trying to say.

I see your point Jeremiah, although it would be fair to say the incorporation of meat into our anscestors diet marked the begining of human history.

I'll change my vote to the GLF (Great Leap Forward) then; the point (somewhere around 40,000 years ago) at which Cromagnon man became true hunters, developed true language, began extensive migration, made relatively sudden strides in every aspect of his technology.

Some anthropologists consider this an event since, according to one popular theory, it was sparked by a mutation that allowed man to form vowels and thus, within the space of a few generations, develop actual speech.

According to this same theory all the resulting innovations were geared towards obtaining a steady supply of meat.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

I see your point Jeremiah, although it would be fair to say the incorporation of meat into our anscestors diet marked the begining of human history.

There was never an incorporation of meat into our diet, it was always there. You could argue that cooked meat was incorporated into our diet but that is different.

I'll change my vote to the GLF (Great Leap Forward) then; the point (somewhere around 40,000 years ago) at which Cromagnon man became true hunters, developed true language, began extensive migration, made relatively sudden strides in every aspect of his technology.

40,000 years? Man migrated out of Africa 700,000 years ago and something tells me he was a true hunter at that time.

 

[Quagmire]

40,000 years? Man migrated out of Africa 700,000 years ago and something tells me he was a true hunter at that time.

Up until what Anthropologists call the GLF, it's more likely that our ancestors were more scavengers than hunters. whatever hunting they actually did was most likely sporatic and confined to smaller game.

With the development of true language man could develop and communicate complex hunting stratagies, devise more complex weapons and tools (there's no evidence that man had developed composite weapons, ie., wooden spears with stone spearheads, up til this point).

The ability to track and take down large game allowed man more freedom of movement and motived him to start following the herds.

This, along with the access to hides and the ability to tailor clothes to his needs made it possible for him to expand his range over a much greater area, hence, as I've said, extensive migration. It's true that migration had been going on for practically the entire existence of humanoids, but at this point his range expanded more extensively and more quickly than in the entirety of his existence up until that point put together.

(I tried to find something on the GLf on google but all I got was info on the Great Leap Forward in China in the '50s )

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

With the development of true language man could develop and communicate complex hunting stratagies, devise more complex weapons and tools (there's no evidence that man had developed composite weapons, ie., wooden spears with stone spearheads, up til this point).

So your saying that Wolves don't hunt because they don't have language? I disagree.

Also, the mutation your talking about was more likely 200,000 years ago.

EARLY MAN 200,000 TO 35,001 BC

 

[painted wolf]

Meat eating has been a part of human history since the Australopithicines. Heck even before that, the shared ancestor with Chimps was likely a meat eater as Chimps regularly hunt for meat. Even Bonobo's hunt for meat from time to time.

Fire was tamed by Homo erectus.
Neanderthals used stone spear tips and had very advanced stone tools. Equal or in some cases better than our own.
They could also manufacture clothing, as awls and other hide working tools were made by them.

Neanderthals had complex hunting strategies, after all they were tackling the most dangerous game animals in the world. Indeed they specialized in hunting big game where our ancestors focused on mid sized game. You can't hunt an intelligent social animal like a Mammoth without efficient communication. And they were built just as well as we are for speech.

wa:do

 

[lamplighter]

Fire is hard to conceptualize as we have no memory of its harnessing. We don't know what was involved in overcoming the primitive fear of the burning tree to finally take up the fiery branch and put it to use. Without that knowledge how do we know just how significant that event really was. Although, I've sometimes wondered if the burning bush is some kind of racial memory of early mans dealing with fire.

The harnessing of fire happened 1 to 1.8 million years ago, when we were still confined to the Cradle of Humankind, it may have not been one event but separate events occurring at different times. Regardless, using fire as a tool is probably the corner stone to human civilization, without it I think we'd still be running around in animal skins hunting and gathering on a daily basis.

 

[Arlanbb]

So your saying that Wolves don't hunt because they don't have language? I disagree.

Also, the mutation your talking about was more likely 200,000 years ago.

EARLY MAN 200,000 TO 35,001 BC

Trey ~ Early Man started why before 200,000 BC. Early Homo was H. habilis and they developed over 2 million years ago and lasted only about 40,000 years.