So what do you think they were?

I'll reserve my ideas for later

hmmmmm.....

best: (tie) The signing if the U.N. charter & the moon landings

worst: The Black Death

Best: Before humans evolved
Worst: Everything thereafter

We humans suck, lets face it, we haven't done anything food for the earth. We've managed to pollute it, thats about all.

Boy, a difficult question to ask!

As I think everything is relative, I'll have trouble answering. WW2 comes to mind, but that is probably just because it's still close. It's in the eye of the beholder.

Ok, I've thought about it.

1) The worst : The writing of the bible, and the dogmatic subscriptions to it. -leading to bloodshed and totalitarianism every after, however well the intentions might have been.

2) The best : Leipzig 1844, the publishing of Max Stirners "Der Einzige und sein Eigentum" -the most wonderful piece of literature ever written, which shows, with wit and humour and a sharp philosophical argument, that no man can ever be subdued by concepts, or succumb to totalitarianism in the long run.

the worst:

well, definitly the the first hit of the black plague.Almost 2/3 of the eurasian population perished.there were just fields and pile's of death everywhere.

the best: regular menstruation... (make's it posible for woman to have intercourse the whole year)

Best: CFC was founded

Worst: CFC was founded;)

Best: End of medieval times...falls of the religious anti-science thinking...birth of science. Gutenberg invent printing(THAT IS NOT IN CIV 2!!!)

worst: destruction of the roman empire in the 1600's---> human were evolved like the people just before the fall of the roman empire...Some research found that a scientist had discovered steam power in these time imagine the industrial revolution happening in the 600's


NB: i saw the special on fox that neil armstrong never land on the moon...I believe it and still think americans went on the moon for the first time in the 70's...

The best: Walking up to my future wife and telling her she looked like someone who wanted to be somewhere else. I was shot down soundly:rolleyes:, but recovered nicely:goodjob: (The first night I met her!:D)

The worst: Definately the moment that someone figured out that there is only ONE true god :rolleyes:... And that god supported HIM :mad:... and doesn't like the other guy down the street, whose God is inferior and somewhat lenient.:(

the Best: Invention of electricity. Could YOU live without it?

the Worst: The 50's when those insane Christian fundamentalists lied to everyone about the US being founded a christian country. A CRUSADE on terrorism? Yes, that's gonna make the muslims hand over Bin Laden. D'oh!

Best: Mozart's father decides his son should indeed pursue his musical talents.

It's hard to top man walking on the moon. Really, just think about what a phenomenal accomplishment that is. Truly mind boggling.

Worst: Columbus "discovering" the americas. This might have happened eventually anyway, but what followed was the death of tens of millions, the destruction of civilizations, escalating rivalries (and thus wars) in europe.

The UN is only good for nations that want to destroy the United States.

Well, besides that,

The best event would be the signing of the Magna Carta...

Worst...Josef Stalin's rise to power.

:nuke: The splitting of the atom.

:nuke: The splitting of the atom.

"Some research found that a scientist had discovered steam power in these time imagine the industrial revolution happening in the 600's"

Do you have a reference for this? It sounds fascinating, I'd like to read about it sometime. The Dark Ages and the dogma of the Church probably delayed man's progress at least 1000 years. I'd say that that general period of history was probably the worst to live in for a free-thinking individual (and the plague periods just made it worse).... But the worst MOMENT was the first successful test of the atomic bomb.

The best? The dawn of space flight, which might lead us to a way out of our own destruction coming from those same atomic bombs, or other weapons of mass destruction....

Ok, I deleted my previous post with its failed attempt at humor, and here is my real answer:

Best- evolution or creation (depending on your beliefs) of the first animal capable of higher-level thought processes and emotions: humans

Worst- the Pellopenesian War, which led to a weakened Greece able to be conquered by Alexander the Great

Originally posted by allan
"Some research found that a scientist had discovered steam power in these time imagine the industrial revolution happening in the 600's"

Do you have a reference for this? It sounds fascinating, I'd like to read about it sometime. The Dark Ages and the dogma of the Church probably delayed man's progress at least 1000 years. I'd say that that general period of history was probably the worst to live in for a free-thinking individual (and the plague periods just made it worse)....


Look up Heron's steam engine.
Or go to http://alexandrias.tripod.com/hero.htm
Steam power was invented way before middle ages.

Reason it never was developed further is most probably there was no incentive to research its practical use. As long as labor power was as cheap as it was that time, using slaves, why would anyone spend firewood and metal on this thing.
A theoretical more egalitarian society would have had more interest in such a device.
(soapbox mode on)
Cheap, unskilled, uneducated labor power = slow scientific and technical progress.
A good cause for free education for everyone qualified, even into and beyond university levels.
(soapbox mode off)

Ob ontopic:

Best moment:
Battles of Salamis and Plataea 480-479BC. European culture could have been crushed in its infancy.

Worst moment:
Germany's descent from the most politically liberal, artistic creative, culturally advanced nation in the world into barbary in less than 10 years. A reminder for us all. Even now. Maybe especially now.

C.

Originally posted by rmsharpe
Worst...Josef Stalin's rise to power.
If not Stalin, then who?
Trotski was an idealistic, who would soon be killed.
And then... The CCCP would fall into anarchy!
Oh yeah. And then CCCP wouldn't attack against Finland.
And then Finland wouldn't created a mass industry.
And then I would be somewhere on a Yogoslavian-style
farm, not spamming here.

Oh yeah, now I got it.

I'd go along with the development of space flight for the Best. Instead of using Apollo 11 (20 July 1969), though, I would suggest Sputnik (4 Oct 1957). Sputnik represents a beginning, while Apollo represents a culmination of sorts (at least for manned spaceflight).

The Worst is harder to choose. There are so many ways to approach the question. In the abstract, I'd say the first time humans invented a god -- or, more broadly, embraced supernaturalism. That certainly accounts for the majority of human suffering. More concretely, I'd vote for the Holocaust, which may be the most heinous example of pure evil -- although a case can be made for Stalinism, Pol Pot or Mao's Cultural Revolution. To stay consistent with my Best, though, I'll nominate the political decision to cancel Apollo 18, abandon Apollo-era hardware and retreat from humanity's noblest dream.

Some of you may remember that, in 1969, NASA had solid plans to land astronauts on Mars by 1986, based on stable funding and Apollo-type hardware. By 2001, we should have permanent bases on Mars, the moon and other bodies, and would be well on the road to becoming a real spacefaring civilization. This is our species' ultimate path, and while we haven't abandoned it, we are certainly dawdling.

It's a really tough question, especially because "best" and "worst" are such flexible terms. For example, is the "best" event the one which was most significant, most successful, or best for the overall progress of humanity? Perhaps the best "ambigous" example from the 20th C. is the development of the nuclear weapon...it's a nasty thing, but it helped create the Long Peace.

I'll try for a mix of all three, and nominate these:

Best (no particular order):
Inventions of the printing press and the transistor.
Magna Carta, John Locke, and the Federalist Papers.
The defeats of Napoleon and Hitler
The Tale of the Heike
Greek (pre-Alexander) victories over Persia
C.S. Lewis (personal favorite)

Worst (again no particular order)
Slavery
Appeasement/Failure to balance against Hitler.
Failures of military doctrine in both WWI and WWII
Marxism/Leninism (as a political theory, as opposed to an awareness of the plight of workers during the Industrial Revolution)

Honorable "Amoral" Mention: Developments in Classical (Thucydides, Machiavelli, etc.) and Modern Realism

Juize - sure, you may have benefited from the Soviet attack on Finland..but...

Can you honestly say that you would have benefited from the 30 million people that Stalin starved to death?

"Some research found that a scientist had discovered steam power in these time imagine the industrial revolution happening in the 600's"

my english is so bad...

Allan it was on a scientific documentary...it was in the time of rome I think (maybe it was athens) but more rome...it was kind of a balloon in pottery with kind of you know an appendice like a watering can hanging on an horizontal axis....then they put that balloon near fire and the heat boiled the water and this kind of balloon would start to spin on itself due to the push of steam exiting from the appendice...At that time it was considered as a toy but in the documentary they said they would have realise the full potential of this balloon soon but the roman empire fell and it was lost...

I'll try to search on that...email me or pm me...