We must have a Lucretius Day in commemoration of his publication of De Rerum Natura. He started all the trouble of modern science, atoms. infinities, and other such nonsense that stirred up the believers in antiquated beliefs of his day.
*He acknowledge Epicurus as his source for knowing atoms exist.
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There is one simple point we have to start from:
The gods never made a single thing out of nothing.
Because, if one things frightens people, it is
that so much happens, on earth and out in space,
the reasons for which seem somehow to escape them,
and they fill in the gap by putting it down to the gods.
That is why, once we know that nothing can come from nothing,
we are on the right track already and likely to see
how everything starts and goes on in an ordered sequence
and nothing at all is merely the work of the gods.
. . . . . .
You know I have said creation out of nothing
is nonsense and so is destruction of things to nothingness.
But since you may doubt the validity of a doctrine
requiring the existence of invisible elements [atoms]*,
I should like to draw your attention to certain bodies
which must be allowed to exist, although we can’t see them.
There is one simple point we have to start from:
The gods never made a single thing out of nothing.
Because, if one things frightens people, it is
that so much happens, on earth and out in space,
the reasons for which seem somehow to escape them,
and they fill in the gap by putting it down to the gods.
That is why, once we know that nothing can come from nothing,
we are on the right track already and likely to see
how everything starts and goes on in an ordered sequence
and nothing at all is merely the work of the gods.
. . . . . .
You know I have said creation out of nothing
is nonsense and so is destruction of things to nothingness.
But since you may doubt the validity of a doctrine
requiring the existence of invisible elements [atoms]*,
I should like to draw your attention to certain bodies
which must be allowed to exist, although we can’t see them.
*He acknowledge Epicurus as his source for knowing atoms exist.
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