The Most Significant Event in Human History (influence, facts, events)

[Splinter]

What is the most important event in HUMAN history....and why?

[Irishtom29]

My birth. Because without that nothing else would matter to me.

[allforcats]

Okay! Now we can close this thread!! Hahahahaha!!! Love it!

[Tricky D]

That would be the beginning of human life.
For the obvious reason that if it never started we would not be here.

[banger]

The birth of religion.

This was mans first attempt to give an answer to his own being, and the creation of the universe.

From this point all other attempts at learning and explaining followed.

[skytrekker]

Perhaps the ability for humans to change from hunter gathers to developing agriculture.

[Tricky D]

Originally Posted by skytrekker

Perhaps the ability for humans to change from hunter gathers to developing agriculture.

The problem with agriculture is that it is the cause for our overpopulating the world (our world population can only increase if we are able to increase our food production) and it also created the foundation for the idea that we humans are superior to nature. Unlike most other species we are able to control our food production, which as it turns out might not be a good thing at all.
So far we’ve only been able to increase our food production (which will eventually increase our world population) and seem unable and / or unwilling to decrease our world population.

[MICoastieMom]

Originally Posted by Tricky D

Originally Posted by skytrekker The problem with agriculture is that it is the cause for our overpopulating the world (our world population can only increase if we are able to increase our food production) and it also created the foundation for the idea that we humans are superior to nature. Unlike most other species we are able to control our food production, which as it turns out might not be a good thing at all.
So far we’ve only been able to increase our food production (which will eventually increase our world population) and seem unable and / or unwilling to decrease our world population.

The question was, "What is the most important event in HUMAN history.... and why?"

Just like Time magazine's Person-of-the-Year award that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year", this question did not specify "the most important positive event....." Like Hilter, Stalin, and Ayatollah Khomeini all gracing the cover of Time, so too is it possible for an event with disasterous consequences to be significant.

That ambiguity makes the question subjective; like an essay question that reads, "In your opinion,....." No one's opinion is ever wrong. You might think it is mis-informed or deluded or whatever, but by virtue of being an opinion, it cannot be wrong.

[gentlearts]

The discovery of penicillin and/or that bacteria cause disease.

[Tricky D]

Originally Posted by MICoastieMom

You might think it is mis-informed or deluded or whatever, but by virtue of being an opinion, it cannot be wrong.

I'm not talking about an opinion, I'm talking about facts.
How else would you explain the increase of the world population, but with surplus food (which is only possible with modern agriculture)?
If we have no surplus food the world population simply could not increase, but since the population keeps increasing, our food production will increase with it which in turn guarantees a food surplus (so the population can keep growing, etc).
So if the world population keeps growing (which it is) modern agriculture can only be the cause of that.

Or to say it in other words: knowledge is a 2-edged sword; the more knowledge we possess the more responsible we have to act.

So the most significant event in human history would be to freeze or even reduce the human population.