I guess that's hard to determine, which is the most influential. I think religious books like the Bible, the Quran, ... were very influential. Or "Capital" by Karl Marx.
this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2022
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Marx would definitely be less influential than religious texts. It's massively influential to be sure, but the Christian Bible and Quran were shaping empires for over a thousand years before Marx put pen to paper.
The Bible seems like the obvious answer, what might be a more interesting question is: what is the most influential book now?
The question should be rephrased, to make it not that obvious and more interesting what the answer will be: what is the most influential non-religious book?
Yeah, when I wrote the question I totally forgot religions existed. I was thinking more of something like Capital or 1984.
The first testament, I'd wager.
I think Gutenberg's Bible, because the translation destroyed the privilege of sole interpretation by the clergy. From a technical perspective, it was the cornerstone of the information age through the invention of moveable letters/ letterpress.
The Bible may seem the obvious answer from a western persective, but really how much have its specifics affected society? The Quran, on the other hand, is considered essentially all-knowing and unadulterated in its religion, so is probably a lot more influential, even if you think that Islam was less influential than Christianity, which is debatable.
God and the state - mijael bakunin Hitchhikers guide through the galaxy