Subscribe to ListverseTop 10 Books that Changed the World
- Published July 24, 2007 - 143 Comments
This topic is a very subjective one, and I realise that there will be many disagreements with my selected 10 books. Feel free to add any additional books with a reason, to the comments field. You may even want to contribute a much larger list for future inclusion on the site.
In order of creation, here is the list of top 10 books that changed the world.
1. The Bible – Various Authors (circa 30AD – 90AD) [Wikipedia]
There can be no doubt that the Bible has done more to change the face of the world than any other book. A mere two hundred years after it was created, it brought about the conversion of the entire Roman Empire from paganism to Christianity. Since then, Christianity has become the largest single religion in the world (with 2.1 billion adherents). The oldest and largest of the Christian groups is the Roman Catholic Church whose membership (1.05 billion) is equal to the size of all other Christian groups combined.
The Bible comprises two books – the Old Testament (taken from the Greek edition used by Christ and the apostles) and the New Testament (written by some of the Apostles of Jesus after his death – including St Paul who did not meet Christ during His lifetime).
The Gutenberg bible (a copy of the Latin Vulgate) was the first book ever published on the printing press. The Bible is the most purchased book in the world.
2. The Qur’an – Various Authors (650AD to 656AD) [Wikipedia]
The Qur’an is the holy book of the Islamic religion. The founder of Islam, Mohammed told his followers that he was given revelations by the Angel Gabriel. These revelations (spanning 23 years) form the basis of the Qur’an. After Mohammed’s death in 632 the Qur’an was recorded by word of mouth only; it was not for another 20 years that the various memories of his words were collected and combined.
The Qur’an is considered by Muslims to be the last revealed word of God (after the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Christian Bible). In recent years much debate has occurred over the content of the Qur’an – with its opponents claiming that it advocates war and murder of non-believers. Muslims generally claim that this is not the case and state that opponents of Islam are taking the text out of context.
3. The Summa Theologica – St. Thomas Aquinas (1265 – 1274) [Wikipedia]
The Summa Theologica is a multi-volume set of books which outlines in the most precise manner, the doctrines and beliefs of Christianity. It was held in such high regard, that second to the Bible, it was the book most used for reference at the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563). Its influence was felt all across the Christian World as the reforms of the Council of Trent were implemented.
To this day, the Summa Theologica is the primary teaching tool used in Roman Catholic seminaries and its author is regarded as a Doctor of the Church (a title reserved for only 33 great thinkers in the history of Christianity). It is also worth noting that St Isidore (popularly considered Patron Saint of the Internet) is also seen as a Doctor of the Church.
Buy the Summa Theologica at Amazon.com
4. The Rights of Man – Thomas Paine (1791) [Wikipedia]
Paine, an English writer, influenced American Democracy and Democracy in general with his writings. According to Paine, the sole purpose of the government is to protect the irrefutable rights inherent to every human being. Thus all institutions which do not benefit a nation are illegitimate, including the monarchy (and the nobility) and the military establishment.
When the French Revolution broke out, Paine went to France where, despite his ignorance of the French language, he was promptly elected to the National Convention. His absence from England at this time was fortuitous because the publication of The Rights of Man caused such a furor in the country that Paine was put on trial in absentia and convicted for seditious libel against the crown.
Buy The Rights of Man at Amazon.com
5. Either/Or – Søren Kierkegaard (1843) [Wikipedia]
Either/Or portays the two lifeviews, one being consciously hedonistic and one based on ethical duty and responsibility, in two volumes. Each lifeview is written and represented by a fictional pseudonymous author and the prose of the work depends on which lifeview is being discussed. For example, the aesthetic lifeview is written in short essay form, with poetic imagery and allusions, discussing aesthetic topics such as music, seduction, drama, and beauty. The ethical lifeview is written as two long letters, with a more argumentative and restraint prose, discussing moral responsibility, critical reflection, and marriage.
This book, by the father of existentialism has been highly influential with other existentialists. Despite its great popularity, it was not published in English until 1944. Existentialism is a philosophical movement that claims that individual human beings have full responsibility for creating the meanings of their own lives. It is a reaction against more traditional philosophies, such as rationalism and empiricism.
6. Communist Manifesto – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848) [Wikipedia]
This tract, written by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels at the behest of the Communist League, has become one of the most influential political tracts in history. The Manifesto suggested a course of action for a proletarian (working class) revolution to overthrow the bourgeois social order and to eventually bring about a classless and stateless society.
Perhaps the most famous quote from the work reads: “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!”
Buy the Communist Manifesto at Amazon.com
7. Experimental Research in Electricity – Michael Faraday (1855) [Wikipedia]
Faraday was an English chemist and physicist whose many experiments with electricity ultimately lead to his invention of electromagnetic rotary devices which formed the foundation of electric motor technology. Although he received little formal education and thus higher mathematics like calculus were always out of his reach, he went on to become one of the most influential scientists in history. It was largely his experiments that lead to electricity becoming viable for use in technology.
During his lifetime, Faraday rejected a knighthood and twice refused to become President of the Royal Society. He died at his house at Hampton Court on August 25, 1867. He has a memorial plaque in Westminster Abbey, near Isaac Newton’s tomb, but he turned down burial there and is interred in the Sandemanian plot in Highgate Cemetery.
Buy Experimental Researches in Electricity at Amazon.com
8. On the Origin of Species – Charles Darwin (1859) [Wikipedia]
This book by Darwin is considered a seminal work in the field of evolutionary biology. It proposes that over time, through natural selection, species evolve. It was a highly controversial book as it contradicted many religious views on biology at the time. Darwin’s book was the culmination of evidence he had accumulated on the voyage of the Beagle in the 1830s and expanded through continuing investigations and experiments since his return to England.
The book is readable even for the non-specialist and attracted widespread interest on publication. The book was controversial, and generated much discussion on scientific, philosophical, and religious grounds. The scientific theory of evolution has itself evolved since Darwin first presented it, but natural selection remains the most widely accepted scientific model of how species evolve. The at-times bitter creation-evolution controversy continues to this day.
Buy On the Origin of Species at Amazon.com
9. The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir (1949) [Wikipedia]
The Second Sex is the best known work of Simone de Beauvoir. Beauvoir wrote the book after attempting to write about herself. The first thing she wrote was that she was a woman, but she realized that she needed to define what a woman was, which became the intent of the book. It is a work on the treatment of women throughout history and often regarded as a major feminist work. In it she argues that women throughout history have been defined as the “other” sex, an aberration from the “normal” male sex.
Simone de Beauvoir (a pioneer of the feminist movement) argues that women have historically been considered deviant, and abnormal. She submits that even Mary Wollstonecraft considered men to be the ideal toward which women should aspire. Beauvoir says that this attitude has limited women’s success by maintaining the perception that they are a deviation from the normal, and are outsiders attempting to emulate “normality”. For feminism to move forward, this assumption must be set aside.
Buy The Second Sex at Amazon.com
10. Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand (1957) [Wikipedia]
Atlas Shrugged was Rand’s last work before she devoted her time exclusively to philosophical writing. This book contains a variety of themes that would later become the core of her philosophy Objectivism. She considered it to be her magnum opus and is it the most popular of her non-fiction work.
While the book was largely a critical failure, it had an enormous poplar success. As far as influence in the world, the Objectivist philosophy gave much to the Libertarian movement which has enjoyed great popularity around the world.
In a three-month online poll of reader selections of the hundred best novels of the twentieth century, administered by publisher Modern Library, Atlas Shrugged was voted number one. She has a large following in the celebrity world, including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie who have been selected to play the two main characters in a trilogy of films that aims to bring Atlas Shrugged to the silver screen in the near future.
Buy Atlas Shrugged at Amazon.com
Technorati Tags: Books, literature
I hope you don’t mind that I add another woman...
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July 24th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Atlas Shrugged! Ayn Rand has changed my life, I started with Anthem, worked up to The Fountainhead and culminated in Atlas Shrugged, the purity of her writing is like droplets of pure water from a hidden mountain spring in Paradise.
July 24th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Orion: it definitely changed my life too – I loved the book and I am very keen to see how the film pans out.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
rand’s objectivism became a cult due to its belief in her absolute morality
July 24th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Ayn Rand: completely unknown outside the U.S.
July 24th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Err, the Old Testament was written WELL before 30 AD. If you’re just talking about the New Testament (which from your write-up it appears you are), then make that clear.
I’d also mark Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” as a pretty influential book, seeing as it introduced such concepts as the invisable hand of the market and more or less defined capitalism as we know it. Ms. Rand is a somewhat dubious choice.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Max: um – I was not born in the USA and I knew of Rand before I left my original country of origina. In addition, I have met many people in the United Kingdom who know of her.
Ala: yes – I realise that but I didn’t want to label it as 6000BC – 90AD. I chose the date I chose because it marks the time that the whole was complete.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Books that changed the world.. hmmmmm
Complex list to compile as most books that “changed the World” would surely have been written either pre or post the dark ages. I’ve discussed this question with friends and most have agreed that a better idea for a list would be – books that changed the World (post WWIII).
We came up with:
Practical electronics
physics for dummies
dummies guide to chemistry
et al
you get the idea
July 24th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Michael: I was conscious of the timing of the books I chose, but taken on their own I think each one of those books has been the driving force behind a lot of change for its time.
July 25th, 2007 at 3:23 am
All the books certainly belong here, although I would definitely trade the Communist Manifesto for Plato’s Republic. If one was to take a purely scientific outlook, you forgot Newton’s Mathematica Principa and Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (although both of those could be considered mere essays). Personally, I would just group the pre-socratic Greek writings as one book. Certainly Protagoras, Thales, and Xenophanes have had a far larger influence on Western culture than Mr. Darwin. Hell, Aristotle isn’t on this list! but hey, no one’s perfect. It would be best to have at least twenty of the most influential books, or possibly divide between the ancient versus the modern. God knows how much knowledge was lost and who actually first came up with an idea.
I think “Wealth of Nations” would also be a wiser choice than Thomas Paine.
As for fiction, I would choose Ulysses over Atlas Shrugged, although both books certainly belong on a list like this. Personally, I think Dostoevsky to be more brilliant than both, but that’s just me. Rand is certainly worthy of recognition.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Alf: thank you for your comment – I hope it inspires people to go and read some of the books you have listed – all of which are definitely worthy of being on the list.
Perhaps better would have been to have called it “10 Books that Changed the world” rather than trying to pick the TOP 10.
July 26th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Alf: I agree that Plato’s Republic should be on the list, but not at the expense of The Communist Manifesto. The Communist Manifesto has been hugely influential since it was written, arguably more influential than most books on this list.
I absolutely abhor Ayn Rand, but I agree that Atlas Shrugged has been very significant, if only for justifying “rational self-interest” in the minds of many Americans. And yes, it may seem a bit ethnocentric to include something that has really only been influential in the United States, but lets be honest here — the US is a major player in the world, and Atlas Shrugged helped define and drive the American mentality. Although I feel I should point out that Atlas Shrugged is a truly awful book from both a literary and political standpoint
July 26th, 2007 at 6:28 am
asteadyrain: haha you are right about Atlas Shrugged – but this is not a list about literary quality so she made it in
At least she can claim the defence that English was not her native tongue.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Good list, but missing off Mathematica Principa is a mistake, imho.
July 29th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Ayn Rand’s writings involve philosophy about as much as Ann Coulter’s.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:22 am
What about Vedas ?
“Rigveda was composed roughly between 1700–1100 BCE (the early Vedic period) in the Punjab (Sapta Sindhu),[1] putting it among the world’s oldest religious texts in continued use, as well as among the oldest texts of any Indo-European language.”
Influenced, Hinduism Jainism Buddhism and Zoroastrianism
The followers of ^^ those account for a big chunk of world population.
July 29th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Anmol – thanks for mentioning the Vedas – they are definitely a worthy addition to the list.
August 10th, 2007 at 4:51 am
atlas shrugged changed the world? hardly.
how about
the art of war
the divine comedy
the kama sutra
just to name a few that I believe more worthy than a novel that promotes selfishness.
August 10th, 2007 at 7:05 am
Phil: I guess that in part I added that book because of it fitting so well into the modern idea of the Liberty of Man – something Atlas Shrugs illustrates in a perfect way. Have you read the book? If not I strongly suggest you do – you will totally change your way of thinking. The book is not promoting selfishness, it is condemning it; the rulers and average people of the world selfishly take more and more from the “minds” and the producers of the world. Those great people simply withdraw their ability – which I am not sure could be considered selfish as it is their ability to do with as they please. That is the crux of the story.
The Divine Comedy I wouldn’t add as it describes something which was already believed by the majority of its readers at the time – so it wasn’t bringing something new to the world. The Kama Sutra – I am not sure how world changing that is – maybe by producing a few more children
The Art of War is definitely a suitable addition to the list. Thanks for mentioning it here.
August 10th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
jfrater , sorry for being political (i’m a controlled market person, but not communist), I just thought that there were better choices than atlus shrugged. yes, like you said the art of war would be a perfect choice.
August 10th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Phil: no need to apologise – just read Atlas Shrugged! I guarantee you won’t be so opposed to the book once you do
Anyway, all of that aside, have a great weekend
August 14th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Old Testament has fragments that date well before the end of the babylonian captivity (200 BCE). Perhaps the source of this 30 – 90 AD business refers to the canonization of the Tanach?
Also, the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad (pbuh) between the years of 610 and 632 CE. This “650/various authors” nonsense sounds a lot like the Patty Crone camp to me. Which is, of course, absurd. She’s got about as much academic legitimacy as Daniel Pipes in the midst of a 3 week long meth and hooch bender; and that prodigous schnoz of Mr. Pipes’ can such up a lot of powder; but I digress.
August 14th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Some other influential books:
Naked Lunch – Has been referenced more than almost any other “obscure” book I can think of in the few decades since its release.
Pihkal/Tihkal – Sasha still owes me a preprint of qikal.. He promised in an email 10 years ago and I am still waiting… Sasha’s hand is felt from the earliest days of the hippie movment straight through to today’s “alphabet soup” of recreational pharmacudicals popping occaisionally on the news.
The mathnawi – Jalaluddin Rumi’s epic poem has inspired countless people worldwide since he penned it centuries ago. Even Queen Victoria kept a copy handy. Skip the hippy translations and to right for the one translated by Reynold Nicholeson. Pip pip, cherio, brit orientalist does good… Arberry’s translation is good albeit incomplete.
The Tao te Ching – DC Lau’s translation, available from penguin classics, is pretty good.
The Art of Computer Programming Vol 1-3: Donald Knuth’s magnum opus. You are not a nerd unless you have spent time navigating these formidible texts. These are the most influential books in computing. If you think you are a nerd and have not bought and read at least some of TAOCP, you are a pretender. I heard a while ago that he was working on a 4th volume…
I have to add the Arabic Lexicon by Edward Lane as an honorable mention. This massive 8 volume/40 lb arabic to english dictionary has been a source of great releief to scholars for years and years. you can download all 3000+ pages in PDF format here:
http://www.studyquran.co.uk/LLhome.htm
I hope you have lots of free space.
Also, I don’t know how legal that “free” download is.
August 14th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
John: wow – that is quite a long list. I agree about Naked Lunch – it is a great book though I am not sure it was world changing. I will need to research the others
August 14th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Also, the Vedas bore NO influence on Zoroastrianism. Any similarities between the zoroastrians and hindus are more than likely shared influence from proto-indo-iranian culture.
For instance. Zorastrains see “devi” as an evil spirit or spiritual entity. hindus see “devi/deva” as a generic term relating to a goddes/god figure (a’udhubillah). The words are similar, and probably share a common ancestor in PII culture and language. It is not, however, indicative of hinduism influencing zorastrianism.
To say that is simply being indo-centric, which I suppose is pretty easy to be given what tomorrow’s holiday is….
August 16th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Not saying Atlas Shrugged should not be on the list but using a poll that rates ‘Battlefield Earth’ as the third best novel and that fact that celebrities like it are not really the best way to make your point.
Your point is much better made in the comments when you defend the book from other people’s opinions.
Did the book change the USA? When I look I see a lot of what Anne Rand was arguing against (people fighting to take more than they contribute and the ‘able’ people withdrawing)
Great list!
August 16th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
blizzard: I accept your point, though the celebrity mention was more to give me a chance to plug the up and coming film
August 18th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Dr Seuss changed MY world.
August 18th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Gravy: May I ask how?
August 18th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Ten more that may not have changed the world but were very influential:
The Iliad (Homer) 8th Century BC
The Necronomicon (H.P. Lovecraft) 1924
I Robot (Isaac Asimov) 1950
The Time Machine (H.G. Wells) 1895
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Hunter S. Thompson) 1971
A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking) 1988
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) 1952
Lolita – (Vladimir Nabokov) 1955
The Lord of the Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien) 1954
1984 (George Orwell) 1948
August 18th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Jerry – good list. I love Asimov (he wrote a great book of short stories too) but I would add Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land for Sci Fi, and probably E.E Doc Smith’s series – you could consider that he is the father of modern Sci Fi. Hmm – top 10 Sci Fi books
August 20th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Ayn Rand should NOT be on this list. She was a fraud, whose “morals” were proven to be only on the page. She was a serial adulteress, who ruined not only her own life, but the lives of all those around her. She was a liar and a hypocrite, and all serious philosophical criticism of her work shows it to be shallow, illogical and self-contradictory. No respected philosopher or academic takes her work at all seriously.
Her books are for the stupid and the ignorant… fortunately for her, there are plenty of that sort here in the good old USA.
September 1st, 2007 at 2:26 am
Add me to the list of people who think Ayn Rand is the big B.S. selection here. I mean come on, Dostoyevsky is far more influential, as is Chaucer, Milton, Cervantes, Dante, Bronte….etc. Sounds like somebody has a little Randian fetish that’s clouding somebody’s judgment…
September 1st, 2007 at 3:09 am
ReklawLah and Vermina: hey! Don’t be so harsh! I love Rand – not for the philosophy but because the stories are excellent and I find it easy to become absorbed in her books.
September 1st, 2007 at 3:38 am
um…whats The Necromonicon? from comment 29?
September 1st, 2007 at 5:14 am
The Necronomican was a book that never existed that Lovecraft often quoted – or so I thought. Am I wrong?
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:20 am
Thanks for a very thought-provoking list. One important book I missing is Milton’s Paradise Lost where most of the modern thinking on the Devil come from.
The books that changed my thinking were “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” – I always forget the author! Arthur Koestler’s “Mind in the Machine”, Desmond Morris’s “The Naked Ape”, “The Romeo Error” – again forgotten the author, and Timothy Leary’s version of “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”.
September 2nd, 2007 at 5:39 am
Syrbal – thanks for the great additions! Well picked.
September 4th, 2007 at 10:03 am
The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare.
September 4th, 2007 at 10:16 am
The Mutt: definitely great writings but I am not sure that they changed the world.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Necronomican was/is a fictional work, there was a volume published in 1980 (I think) that was marketed as the actual writing. Doubtful.
Whether it exists is possible. Stranger things have happened. It was rumored that Adolf Hitler had agents search the entire world for it. In hopes of using it as a weapon. Some say he found it.
September 5th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Midian: thanks for that – I was sure that were the case.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Delete the Bible and the Qur’an. Add Immanuel Kants ‘Kritik der reinen Vernunft’ (‘Critique of Pure Reason’)!
September 6th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Leviathan: how ridiculous – are you seriously saying you believe that the Bible and the Qur’an did not change the world? 9/11? The Inquisition? The Crusades? Hello?
September 6th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I hear ya jfrater. You don’t have to be religious to agree that probably the only two books that are guaranteed a spot on the list are the Bible and the Qur’an.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
blizzard: thanks
September 7th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Ayn Rand is an absolutist nincompoop. Her failed philosophy is lain bare through a examination of her seedy personal history. Look into your heroes.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
wow – why do so many people hate Ayn Rand?
September 10th, 2007 at 2:48 am
Well, speaking for myself, I don’t think Rand is much of a writer. Her prose strikes me as rather wooden, and her characters are totally one dimensional. As for why people hate her, of course one reason is that she’s the patron saint of the current conservative movement…
September 10th, 2007 at 2:53 am
Mark D. Combs: I agree about the prose – but then English was not her native language. Despite that I do find the stories very entertaining.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Two influential books not mentioned thus far, and like Atlas Shrugged, you don’t have to like them to acknowledge their influence:
The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
September 10th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Kwilli: You are correct about those two books – well worth the mention, thanks.
September 10th, 2007 at 11:26 am
On the bible and christianity. You state that the catholic church has 1.05 billion which is nearly twice as much as all other churches. 2.1B – 1.05B = 1.05B. So it seems the catholic church represents about half of all christians. Is there a typo somewhere or are half of non-catholic christians without an official church?
September 10th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Zervas: you are correct that I made a typo – thanks for pointing it out – I will rectify it immediately.
September 12th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Thanks for the list. There’s a lot of merit here. I do suspect that numbers five and six weren’t terribly influential at the time, at least to the masses of people that went to work each day. I also think, much for the same reason, that the book “Alcoholics Anonymous” would occupy a place just before “The Second Sex.” The AA book has certainly influenced folks around the world and there are currently several hundred active 12-step groups, all derived from this book.
My personal influences were “Zen and the Art of…,” “The Immense Journey,” and “The Flounder.” All wonderful, thoughtful reads.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:39 am
JMartin: Thanks for mentioning those extras – they are all worthy of a place, I agree.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
How about Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations”?
September 19th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
re:er – it was definitely considered. Thanks for mentioning it in the comments.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:31 am
this is a little off point – but 2 books that “explained” the world are Alan Guth’s Inflationary Universe and Spencer Well’s Journey of Man.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:47 am
2overpar: interesting – thanks for mentioning them. Do they, by any chance, explain the question that has plagued man for millenia: “What is the origin of language?” – I was just reading about it before.
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:36 am
no – the inflationary universe explains what happened immediately after the “big bang”. (the theory of andre linde regarding some of the details is now thought to be correct.) the journey of man theorizes that all humans are descended from one individual – the mutated son of a less evolved hominid couple in africa 60,000 year ago.
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:40 am
2overpar: Both books sound very interesting. I may have to add them to my Amazon wishlist.
October 8th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Hail!
What do you think about Tokio Hotel? >:)
October 18th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Ignoring the entire Ayn Rand conversation, I would suggest (as at least an honorable mention that has yet to be brought up on this page) “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” While not a brilliant work of literature its effect at the time, humanizing slaves, and bolstering the abolishenist movement has had a significant world impact. While some responders may contend that this is an American-centric view. I believe that the Civil War, the emancipation, and the continued racial relations in the country which were shaped by all that followed have a dramatic impact on the world.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:24 am
I can’t believe that Also Sprach Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche was not mentioned. The quote “God is dead” shook the world.
October 27th, 2007 at 7:56 am
Got “Atlas Shrugged” yesterday thanks to this list
Gonna start it tonight. Just thought I’d share.
October 27th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Hobolad: you will love it – one of the most mind opening books I ever read.
October 27th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Hi John Waters, all,
Just to mention the download of Lane’s Lexicon is completely legal as it is now out of copyright and in the public domain.
http://www.studyquran.co.uk/LLhome.htm
I should know, because I am the one who put it online and did the appropriate research first.
October 27th, 2007 at 11:11 am
WM: Thanks for the comment – it is much appreciated!
November 8th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
maybe you should have included the number 2 book in the online survey, battlefield earth, by the irrepressible l.ron, he has a mediocre following in the celebrity world
November 11th, 2007 at 7:28 am
The remarkable thing about Atlas Shrugged is that Ayn Rand was able to sustain such a level of hatred, misanthropy, and the manipulative misrepresentation of opposing viewpoints for 1500+ pages. I do not think that anybody else could have done so. A truly amazing achievement by a pathologically venomous woman.
November 11th, 2007 at 7:41 am
ChrisG: I did not find the book to be filled with hatred at all – she presents the left wing view in an extreme light to put her point accross (which is why left wingers almost all hate it) – I certainly felt the principles were fair – why should the producers not stop producing when they are being raped by the non-producers?
November 13th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Wow with all this talk about Atlas Shrugged I might have to read it now. I have to say I don’t think it would have made my top ten list (wow I say that and I have not read to book) mainly because ‘top ten’ is a very high bar. It is even harder for a book that has not been able to show that it can stand the test of history yet. (who knows maybe Atlas Shrugged will)
However, it sure seems that the book can stir up some discussion in the present day and you have to give a book a ‘tip of the hat’ if it can do that.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
jfrater: By presenting her socialist characters as universally villainous, Rand is hoping that her readers equate personal villainy with an entire philosophical idea. It is called the Straw Man argument, and is a well-known logical fallacy. Also, about halfway through the book there is a horrific train wreck, and Rand spends pages describing how every single person who died deserved to die because they gave to charity or something. I just think that her justification of their deaths is a strong statement of hatred for humanity.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Blizzard: By all means, you should read Atlas Shrugged. I despise the book but I have to admit that it is a very important and seminal work, and has obviously inspired much debate.
November 14th, 2007 at 12:03 am
ChrisG: I see what you are saying – but is this not the perfect opportunity to use the strawman argument… in a fictional work? The point of it is not to prove socialism wrong or evil, but to illustrate a society living in an extreme version of it. The right wingers in the book were all also extreme. When I first read the book I didn’t know much about politics but it inspired me to read more about it – so it lead me to some understanding of socialism and capitalism.
November 20th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Darn it! I wanted to say “The Cat In The Hat” but Gravy (#27) beat me to a Dr. Seuss reference.
November 25th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
This changed my LIFEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ln3V0HgW4eM
November 25th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Judge as you will, but the Satanic Bible is a wonderful read. I am not a Satanist but the author is probably the wittiest writer I have ever come by, and I read about a book a day, everyday. It also clears up alot of misconceptions of “satanism.” It is not a religion that worships the christian depiction of satan, infact the name is just used as a prod to get the bible-thumpers all hot and heavy.
I recommend the book for anyone who is open-minded and free-thinking. Anton LaVey brings up tons of valid points, and through out the book you’ll find bits and pieces that will leave you saying, “Thats exactly what I think!!!”
It reads like a collection of essays and is easy to follow, best of all you can get it for under 10 bucks(US dollars). Even if you don’t agree with what the book says it will make you think and also you’ll probably want to debate your issues with the nearest person!
January 18th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
I think Alfred Kinsey’s “Sexuality and the Human Male” and “Sexuality and the Human Female” are sadly left off this list.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
dante divine comedy
February 20th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
3 words: UNCLE TOMS CABIN
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I’m not sure if this is considered a book as much as a pamphlet but Common Sense by Thomas Paine was a pretty influential book. It helped to turn public opinion in favor of the American Revolution.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:28 am
To leave John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of Government off the list is perplexing to say the least. Especially when Either/Or is included. I like Either/Or a lot better (“Crop Rotation” is one of the funniest and most enlightening essays I can think of) but in terms of the western world post divine rule no philosopher is more directly responsible for the structure of our government than Locke.
The final inclusion has been debated severely and hopefully it has been made obvious that it is regrettably unsuited for this list. While Rand has wielded a modicum of influence here in the states I can think of ten fictional works that should come way before her in terms of changing the world:
1. Don Quixote, Cervantes: Widely held as introduction of the novel, influential to this day.
2. Tristram Shandy, Lawrence Sterne: Invented Modernism and Postmodernism, predicted Freudian psychoanalytical thought. Directly influenced Woolf, Joyce, Beckett, Gogol, Diderot, Nabokov, on and on. Possibly most important fictional work in the English language is often overlooked.
3. (Tie) Ulysses, James Joyce; Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence; Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, others: All important in the development of modern fiction (interior monologue in Ulysses, etc.) but more importantly framed the legal definition of obscenity and ushered along sexual revolution of the early twentieth century.
4. Othello, William Shakespeare: Established (with the rest of his work) standards by which art is today judged. Before Shakespeare it was widely believed art must be moral to be beautiful (see Samuel Johnson for explication of how Shakespeare changed this and consequently the world).
5. The Clouds, Aristophanes: This drama attacked Socrates and foretold the public turning against him. At his trial Socrates claimed it was the play that doomed him. Established the context in which Plato would fictionalize his mentor.
6. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens: Along with the rest of Dickens’ work shed light on the aristocratic ignorance of social injustice in nineteenth century England. Widely considered responsible (along with Jack the Ripper) for subsequent social reform.
7. La Divina Commedia, Dante: Already suggested and then discarded in the comments. Hear this: WITHOUT DANTE THERE IS NO RAND. At the time of publication it was considered heretical and profane. Although currently considered highly religious, in its time the creation of hell from his own imagination put Dante in the church’s direct line of fire. Even with this pressure to rescind his work Dante (and other Italian thinkers) defended the right to imaginative fiction and thereby set the stage for every science fiction work to follow. (See Giacopo Mazzoni for more on Dante’s influence).
8. Republic, Plato: Also already mentioned in the comments. If nothing else, established the basis on which art is to this day censored. Our current battle over violent video games started with Socrates in Book 2 of Republic.
9. Iliad, Odyssey, Homer: Again, mentioned by others. Pretty much the birthplace for all Western fiction. Not to mention early literary criticism dealt almost exclusively with these works.
10. Le Rouge et Le Noir, Stendhal: Attacked the dualism of church and military in French life. More importantly, destroyed romanticism and more or less perfected literary irony. When asked by a friend where one should start an education in brilliant literature, James Joyce named only this book.
There are so many more to choose from as well. Milton’s Paradise Lost was mentioned by a few and is also a fine selection, entertaining too if you catch the puns. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales include themes of deception and reproduction that continue to be important to literary thought. Ovid’s Metamorphoses is also considerably influential. Vico’s Nuova Scienza should be there as well, although not a fictional work.
The point is, while it’s charming that such a earnest affection for Rand would compel one of her fans to include her on such a list, it doesn’t make her inclusion any less of a farce. It certainly doesn’t lessen the insult as well to the authors whose places are rightly above her.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
You should add the works of ancient Homer. His works (Iliad and Odyssey) are probably the best source about the history around those periods. You should also add the ancient sumerian Gilgamesh witch is the first written book ever.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
A couple of points about Ayn Rand:
1. jfrater: Ayn Rand actually does advocate “selfishness” in the form of rational self-interest. See her non-fiction book “The Virtue of Selfishness” for a complete exposition of her views on the subject. She points out that what many people in our modern culture mean by “selfishness” is not necessarily what she means. Particularly, it’s important to remember that all selfishness is bounded by the rights of all other individuals. So we cannot take from others what is rightfully theirs, including their personal work product.
2. Regarding the train wreck: Rand is not saying that their deaths are justifiable. She is illustrating that all of our actions have consequences, and that by implicitly giving their sanction to a system of government like the one described in the book, all of the passengers on the train were responsible for the effects of that government. Again, Rand’s non-fiction delves much more deeply into the idea that each one of us can greatly affect the culture and government we live under, and that we can do so actively but also passively by accepting and condoning it.
3. #31, your comment that no respected philosopher or academic takes her work seriously is just not true at all. Possibly no respected left-wing philosopher or academic takes her work seriously. But Ayn Rand has been hugely influential to libertarian and fiscal conservative thinkers. This influence is exactly why Atlas Shrugged belongs on a list like this.
I would say that I think her non-fiction is more important philosophically, but Atlas Shrugged is probably more influential because a lot of people would read that and not read her non-fiction, and because a lot of people would be inspired to read the non-fiction only after reading Atlas Shrugged.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Actually, the Bible is a compilation of 66 books written by over 40 separate authors from a variety of backgrounds (from lowly peasants to noble kings) over a period of at least 1,600 years. These 66 books are divided in two principle parts, the “Old Testament” (39 books) and the “New Testament” (27 books). The Bible was completed in its entirety nearly 2,000 years ago and stands today as the best-preserved literary work of all antiquity with over 24,000 ancient New Testament manuscripts discovered thus far. Compare this with the second best-preserved literary work of antiquity, Homer’s Iliad, with only 643 preserved manuscripts discovered to date.
May 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
if ayn rand is into individual achievement and creative work, how come she’s such a shiaty writer? hmm?
May 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Perhaps you should change the title of the list to Top 10 Books that Changed the Western World.
May 18th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Ayn Rand never claimed herself as perfect; she developed a philosophy that defined internal gratification. I have applied it to my life, and I reap the benefits on a daily basis. To those that write against it, give me a philosophy that better serves my life! I spent years volunteering, serving in the military, and in spiritual search, however now I spend my time working, achieving my personal goals, around people that I entertain only because of the happiness they bring me. The revenue that I have created doing as such has helped the nation more then all my other services combined, now they can afford to hire people, so no volunteer work is needed. People can help others and still take home a reward for a job well done. That is the price of a philosophy that works – no excuse not to achieve it.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Ayn Rand was a great writer; she made my blood boil when i was in college. Yes, we read a lot in India. I rebelled for a lot of things… however, “right” her philosophy was, she was really bad at human psychology. most of the capitalists are greedy and irrational, not like the ideal capitalist from ayn rand’s works…
after finishing all her works, i moved to Zen… Need I say anything more?
May 19th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Jiddu Krishnamurthy and Osho’s works also have changed the way the world looked at religion and God… Don’t any of their works get a listing here?
May 24th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I think this is a good list, but i agree with many of the other statements about how hard it is to say that 10 books are the most influential.
but i might add slaughter-house 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. he brought the phrase Mother F***er into the english language. look how thats changed the world… Its also a really good book. It probably hasnt changed “the world” so to speak, but it definitely changed the way many people i know think about literature, and it is definitely an important book to read, whether it changed the world or not.
May 26th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Julio: in fact the majority of Christians use the Catholic Bible which has 72 books – in the 1500s the protestants took a number of books out – so your final count is the “protestant Bible” – not the Bible used for the first 1500 years of Christianity (and still used by the majority of Christians today).
June 6th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
While it may have changed the world i believe Atlas shrugged to be one of the worst books ever written. I’ve read it cover to cover and in no way did i enjoy it. The plot is tedious and the characters are some of the most repulsive i can think of. It is the one book that i have read in which all the main characters disgusted me
June 21st, 2008 at 4:40 pm
would the magna carta be consired a book since it laid the foundation for all the freedoms in the world
June 30th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
man am i annoyed. i wasted 3 weeks reading ayn rand
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Melvyn Bragg, a British cultral commentator, published his book ‘Twelve Books That Changed The world’ a couple of years ago. His list is as follows:
Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton (1687)
Married Love by Marie Stopes (1918)
Magna Carta by Members of the English Ruling Classes (1215)
The Rule Book of Association Football by a Group of Former English Public School Men (1863)
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859)
On the Abolition of the Slave Trade by William Wilberforce in Parliament, immediately printed in several versions (1789)
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792)
Experimental Researches in Electricity by Michael Faraday (3 volumes, 1839, 1844, 1855)
Patent Specification for Arkwright’s Spinning Machine by Richard Arkwright (1769)
The King James Bible by William Tyndale and 54 Scholars Appointed by the King (1611)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (1776)
The First Folio by William Shakespeare (1623)
Yes – a very partisan list I know and a very wide definition of the word ‘book’, but there are some here that should be in the list.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I seriously think the Kama Sutra ought to be on here.
On a more recent note, The Kinsey Report and the Joy Of Sex did so much to help those confused generations of bourgeoisie americans through such a strange time. If those two books hadn’t come (heh) along to help all those poor old couples have orgasms and how to find and use the clitoris, I think the button would have been pushed!
But for other nominations:
1984
Gray’s Anatomy (The medical text kids, not the TV show)
Common Sense
The Doors of Perception
September 6th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Atlas Shrugged? What?
That book has changed nothing.
October 18th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
It doesn’t make sense that the Summa Theologica is on the list but Aristotle isn’t. So much of that book is just a combination of the bible and Aristotle’s works. Also, why put Ayn Rand but no Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Locke, Kant or Pre-socratics? All those people have written FAR more influential things.
November 18th, 2008 at 2:23 am
Vogler777
you are a true idiot in every sense of the word.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:48 am
So many people hate Ayn Rand because she calls them out on the immorality of their own ideology, and rightly so. Initiation of force is wrong: even if you claim to have a good excuse, and even if you call yourself “government”.
The Fountainhead is a better work of fictional literature, and is an inseparable part of Ayn Rand’s philosophy. Atlas Shrugged was too short for its scope, and would have worked better as a trilogy.
It is my hope to someday live in a place more influenced by Rand than by any other author mentioned (except for the scientific works which really cannot be compared, and that may already be the case if you measure by the influence of the readers as opposed to their quantity). If/when America ceases to be the champion of economic freedom, such a place will be created somewhere else.
December 4th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Im a freshman in college, and i just finished Atlas Shrugged. It is definatly the most influential book ive read, and i think its fitting that a whole host of people hate the book in a country that just elected obama. Yes, it wasnt well written. However, did it need to be to get the point across? I think it was more effective in the simple prosaic way it was written.
December 21st, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Um. Catholic church is not the oldest christian church. Armenian church is 100 years older.
December 21st, 2008 at 7:59 pm
joe – that is not correct:
January 18th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
You forgot Newton’s Principia Mathematica. Someone said it was an essay. It is not! It is over a thousand pages long!
February 8th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Im not gonna lie. I think Mein Kampf should be on it. not for what the book entails for the average reader, but for the ramifications
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
As far as the “Rights of man” and the topic of basic rights and the role of government was outlined by Thomas Hobbes about 100 years before.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I certainly agree with the majority of these, but “The Rights of Man,” by Thomas Paine, though manifest in the history of our American Republic, would not be a book that could be applied to the world, but America alone. In its place I would recommend Adam Smith’s, “The Wealth of Nations,” which spurred on the Capitalist Age in the first place.
“The Communist Manifesto,” “The Holy Bible,” and “The Origin of the Species,” are all very well placed.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
The list is absolutely correct.
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
why di they always put islam after christianity
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Because the list is chronological and the Qur’an was written after the Bible.
May 8th, 2009 at 1:03 am
I just want to point out that as great as Ayn Rand might be you are slighting so many greater writers and thinkers by including her on this list. He books were written the 1940’s and later, we are not even close to it being a hundred years after them being written we are already heralding them as world changing. You may like her a lot Jamie but this is a little zealous of you. You can’t compare libertarian fiction to writings that have influenced the democracies where libertarianism found its birth. I am not trying to say that Atlas Shrugged isn’t important it is just not as world changing as some other books that are out there. I would cite examples but it seems that I have been beaten to it. My vote goes for either Locke or Cervantes
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:23 pm
There are so many other modern philosophical works that should be here before Either/Or. Descartes’ Meditations, Kant’s 1st Critique, Hegel’s Logic being the most obvious.
June 6th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Ovid’s Metamorphoses–played a major role in Renaissance humanism and influenced Renaissance art.
The Bhagavad Gita–the philosophical basis of Hindu India as well as instrumental in influencing a number of revolutionaries and freedom fighters. Unfortunately it also influenced some Nazis who used its philosophy of detached devotion duty to help alleviate their guilt.
I have to say I agree with the Ayn Rand haters on this forum. I read Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead at a young age and was bored to death. The life that she celebrates is shallow and one-dimensional and I find her vitriol against altruism annoying.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Boo to “Atlas Shrugged”…Prashant says it all.
June 18th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I believe Ayn Rand is a goddess… Honestly, the ideas she had created into various forms… ideas that I would never even think about are extra ordinary.
June 25th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
What about Newton’s “Principia” or Galileo’s “Starry Messenger?” These books did a heck of a lot more to change the world than half the books on this list. Get an education.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
thanks for putting the Origin of the Species on here. I’m a bio nerd and that is a big one for me. I most certainly agree with the Bible and the Communist Manifesto. I’d also include Mein Kampf. Even though it was Hitler and it’s subject was absolutely revolting, it still contributed to creating a following of Hitler.
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
what about mein kampf
August 19th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Guys, please stop griping about “Atlas Shrugged” and “Mein Kampf”. I read and hated both books(in the case of “Mein Kampf” English translation and original German), but I would not say they were not influential. That is ludicrous.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:39 pm
maybe “encyclopedia” by Diderot?
September 10th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Atlas Shrugged is a piece of crap. And it is not true about Pitt and Joli being fans of it.
October 5th, 2009 at 10:40 am
I think the Bro Code should be in this list. That is hands down the most influential book to follow now.
October 17th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
The top 10 books in the Modern Library list you like to quote has four Ayn Rand novels and three L. Ron Hubbards. Not much of a list. I don’t like Ayn Rand because unlike her and her followers, I have a moral compass.
The Catcher In The Rye influenced generations of young people.
November 26th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I am from argentina (please forgive my crappy english), and Rand is, when not popular, known among the common university circles.
I don’t know if I’d place her in “books that change the world”, though… Lao Tze’s Dao De Jing had a great influence on Sun Tzu, who also wrote The art of war. Sun tzu is almost solely responsible for a lot of china as we know it. The napoleonic code is accountable for any country’s law structure that is not based on the commonwealth, and this accounts for a really big chunk of the world.
That is in a practical sense.
Any other major philosopher deserves to be there. Comte’s positivism is responsible for today’s way of thinking, although it could be argued that he just put in paper what was already being a general notion.
Also, Mein Kampf didn’t really change the world, Hitler did. It’s Arguable that hadn’t he written the book he wouldn’t have gotten to power. But he had ideas of his own, and he carried them to practice by himself, there wasn’t that much of a “inflence”, let alone globally. Darwin had a much greater influence in Hitler than Mein Kampf in anybody else.
I mean, one thing is that we state Mein Kampf as a book reflecting a changing moment in history, and another thing entirely is saying that a book per se and by it’s own merit changed the world. Maynard keynes’ books could be an example of the latter, or the Communist manifesto.
Even though I usually agree with your lists, I really don’t know about this one.
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:52 am
The absolute misrepresentation and misconceptions of Rand in these comments are absolutely pathetic. The vast majority of Rand haters have little to absolutely no understanding of her philosophy. It’s either that or they point to her personal life where many of the negative claims about her personal life have been unfounded. Pretty much everyone that’s criticized Rand in these comments have very little understanding of anything she wrote. Sad.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Thank you very much for this list. It’s refreshing to see book rhetoric nowadays. I’ve recently embarked on a reading craze and had to add about 15 books to my amazon wishlist just now!
December 5th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
To correct your comments on the Quran. It was both memorized and written down during the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). But it was not assembled into one volume during his lifetime.
And it was not 20 years after his death, but about 2 years after his death that a single volume of the Quran was collected.
December 16th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Jiblets is on point.
Rand stood for individual freedom; if you do not stand for that, what do you stand for?
Everyone, do not fall into the anti-Rand hype, read her philosophy and draw conclusions on your own.
December 28th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
WUTHERING HEIGHTS is the book that changed my life.
Of course, the Bible.
December 29th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Don’t know where you’ve been getting your “facts” from.
The Qur’an did not have various authors, just one, Allah (God): fact
The Qur’an was not written down 20 years after his death
The Qur’an was memorised entirely before the Prophet Muhammad’s death (pbbh) by hundreds of his companions. During his life the Qur’an had been written down. Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, made special arrangements to have it written down.
When Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, used to receive a revelation, he dictated it to a Companion, who wrote it down on anything that was available: bark, stone, bones, leaves, etc. The companion then read, what he had written, to the Prophet. If there were any mistakes, Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, would correct it and then let it be brought before everyone. Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, also told the order of the verses, etc, and they were written accordingly.
So, in the days of the Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, one copy of the Qur’an existed of what he had gotten written under his personal supervision. It was not in book form but in different parchments. Other Companions also had collections of the Qur’an for their personal record but no standard copy of the Qur’an in book form existed.
Transcripts of the Qur’an were produced shortly years of the Prophets (pbbh) death in 633 CE. The Qur’an in book form was produced in less than 20 years after the death of the Prophet (pbbh).
Not one word of the Qur’an has changed since the time of its revelation, till now. Even non-Muslim western orientalists will tell you this.
Its a well known, established fact, that the Qur’an had one Author, and that Quran has remained in tact for 1,400 years without one word being ommitted or added. The only book in history to have this honour.
December 29th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I know it may sound far fetched that the Qur’an is in fact the word of Allah (God). But this can be proven. It is a linguistic miracle, yes, a miracle, in the Arabic language. It also possesses a large number of scientific miracles (where its scientific statements are in harmony with todays scientific facts), and many other miracles.
Do some research if your after the Truth…
search: Islam, Proof of Islam, miracles of Qur’an; linguistic miracle of quran etc.
peace
December 29th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
God(or Allah) exists…in your mind.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:17 pm
what about the vedic?
January 30th, 2010 at 9:23 am
“The Art of War” has been overlooked in this list.