Materialism vs. Idealism Religious superstition is the root of human fear and in turn the cause of impious acts. There may be the existence of GOD but the world is not guided or controlled by that divinity.
Matters
exist in the form of
atoms, which move around the universe in an empty space. This empty space, or
vacuity, allows for the movement of the atoms and without it everything would be one mass. The
Matter and vacuity can not occupy the same space. These two things make up the entire universe. These invisible particles come together to form material
objects, we are made of the same atoms as a chair or a tree. When the tree dies or the chair is thrown into a fire the atoms do not burn up or die, but are dispersed back into the vacuity. The atoms alone are without mind or secondary
qualities, but they can combine to form living and thinking objects, along with sound, color, taste, etc... Atoms form life, consciousness, and the soul, and when our body dies there is nothing left of the latter except for its parts, which randomly become parts of other forms. Matter is never ending reality, only changing in its form. Physical objects, matter, do not exist independent of the mind.
The pencil that I am writing this essay with would not exist if I were not perceiving it with my senses. The external world can not be understood by thought, but "sensible things", objects that we perceive, can be reduced to ideas in the mind. These ideas, or "objects before the mind", possess primary qualities, the main structure, and secondary qualities, what we derive from our senses, which are inseparable.
Nature is responsible for the arrangement and combination of atoms. Wouldn't this suggest that nature is similar to a divinity? or is nature, which is only matter and space, the wall that separates the gods from mortals. Motivated by a revulsion towards theological belief, Lucretius seems to take a much more scientific approach. One can not completely dismiss Berkeleys' views for, as Montague would say, there is obviously more going on than meets the eye.
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