One of the clearest reasons for Plato’s domination of human thought is revealed early in the Timaeus. In discussing the origins of this world, he designates the Demiurge, or his equivalent of the contemporary God as the creator of the universe. Because his philosophy was much easier to “Christianize,” it seems reasonable to think that Platonism was more warmly adopted compared to Lucretius’ non-teleological view of the universe. By using the presence of Time as the basis of

Instead of pointing to some supernatural force as the source of the universe, the Epicurean explains the presence of our universe as the “right atoms in right season” that have “streamed together to build each thing we see.(5)” More accurately, “our world was made by nature, when atoms, meeting by chance, spontaneously, and joined in myriad useless, fruitless ways, at last found patters, which when thrown together became at once the origin of great things.(53)” These atoms, “endowed with different shapes,” are what create “all types and shapes of colors.(46)” Atoms, “different too in spacing, direction, texture, weight, and impact, in speed and force,” are what “make the different types of animate creatures, keep all earth and sea distinct, and hold the heavens clear of earth.(45)”

In contrary to this definite presence of a higher being, Lucretius takes the opposing stance in that he does not believe in the presence of any god. According to Lucretian thought, we live within a world where “nature, free in a world no lords and masters rule, does everything by herself, without the gods.(54)” It is not possible for Gods to exist because “Gods know no suffering, they know no dangers, their self-engendered power needs naught of us; we cannot win their love or rouse their anger.(44) The absence of a god is logical in the sense that “nothing can come from nothing. We see straight through to what we seek; whence each thing is created and in what manner made, without god’s help.” If such a deity existed, “then all kinds could spring from any source: they’d need no seed. Man could have burst from ocean, from dry land the bearers of scales, and from thin air the birds;…Thus everything cannot spring from anything, for things are unique.(5)”

If one were to “live his appointed span well,” Plato states that he would “travel

Some topics in this essay:
According Lucretian, Timaeus Plato, Eternal Realm, Lucretius Epicureans, Furthermore Plato, Figuring Life, Plato Lucretius, plato lucretius, ultimate purpose, eternal realm, realm form,