Alexander the Great. Captured the known world in his 30’s. No one person has ever done this, that I know of

Caesar
Alexander
Sir Isaac Newton
John the Baptist
Genghis
Napoleon

Hmm, I don't know, but now that I look at my list, the question is about "being powerful," not actually brilliant or accomplished.

I don't know?

Addendum: President Trump is only halfway through his "presidency," so he's out.

...?

Bill Gates…..had a near monopoly on every computer operating system for about fifteen years.

Julious Caesar was an incredible figure in history, and possibly the most significant and sophisticated ruler in history. But in terms of power... not doubt Genghis Khan was the most powerful. Genghis's empire started from literally nothing. He was born into a nomadic horse tribe, very similar to the Comanches or other American Indian tribes in their way of life. He conquered and subjugated a territory almost 5 times larger than the peak of the Roman Empire, and defeated the largest and most sophisticated armies in the world at the time.

Between the number of males he killed, and the number of females he subjugated and made into concubines, just over 1% of today's world population can be DNA traced as a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. That is 1% of the world population traced directly to one man.

No way you could argue anybody but Genghis Khan in terms of power.

You said no religious persons, so I picked Genghis Khan, otherwise I would have had to pick the last option.

Stone Cold…..Because I said so!

Charles Darwin. non religious but he changed the world,
religion and non religion.
We still study about him today.
He has an award named after him(you dont want to win).

Nut will probably remind us that Trump and Hitler are neck and neck.

The US military 1945-1949 was the most dominate ever to exist at any one point in time. Complete global, nuclear, economic, and military dominance. Truman could brought the entire world to heel. He had control of both houses of congress and the actual ability to conquered the entire globe. This four year span is the only time this condition has ever existed in history.

I'm not belittling Khan's accomplishments. They were many. However, Khan had 100,000 men on horses at its peak. Zero global power. Zero economic power. His sphere of direct real time influence was a couple hundred miles around his camps. Khan had trouble crossing the yellow river let alone an ocean.

It's not even a close comparison to the US military post WWII. Or Stalin or Mao for that matter.

The British Empire far exceeded the size of Khans conquests and therefore the correct answer is Queen Victoria. Fact.

And Larry Allen????

Augustus Caesar. He inherited Julius Caesars empire. He ruled for 40 years as the first Roman emperor when Rome was at its peak. Augustus stomped out all internal opposition to his rule and died of natural causes. Julius Caesar only ruled as a dictator for 5 years until he was assassinated.

Adam says “hold my apple”.

Since you had to exclude Christ, He is obviously the most powerful man to ever live. Ha.

So the actual question is who is the second most powerful. Which is much like the best golfer thread. Totally subjective and unprovable.

Imagine a “Best Golfer Ever,” thread and you can’t pick Tiger, Jack, etc. 😂
Yeah that’s real valid. Ha. Ha.

We could say Noah since for a short time he “ruled” the entire world. 😂 😝
All 8 of them.

Or Adam since he ruled the entire world too for a short period of time.