CHAPTER XVIII.. Views of Epicurus on Religion.

VIEWS OF EPICURUS ON RELIGION.

Satisfied with the results of his own enquiries into nature, Epicurus hoped by his view of the causes of things not only to displace the superstitions of a polytheistic worship, but also to uproot the prejudice in favour of Providence. Indeed, these two objects were placed by him on exactly the same footing. So absurd did he consider the popular notions respecting the Gods, that instead of blaming those who attacked them, he believed it impious to acquiesce in them. Religion being, according to Lucretius, the cause of the greatest evils, he who displaces it to make way for rational views of nature deserves praise as having overcome the most dangerous enemy of mankind. All the language of Epicurus in disparagement of the art of poetry applies in a still higher degree to the religious errors fostered by poetry. Nor is it better with belief in Providence than with the popular faith. This belief is also included in the category of romance; and the doctrine of fatalism, which was the Stoic form for the same belief, was denounced as even worse than the popular faith. For how, asks the Epicurean, could divine Providence have created a world in which evil abounds, in which virtue often fares ill, whilst vice is triumphant? How could a world have been made for the sake of man, when man can only inhabit a very small portion of it? How could nature be intended to promote man’s well-being when it so often imperils his life and labour, and sends him into the world more helpless than any animal? How can we form a conception of beings ruling over an infinite universe, and everywhere present to administer everything in every place? What could have induced these beings to create a world, and how and whence could they have known how to create it, had not nature supplied them with an example? In fine, how could God be the happy Being He must be if the whole burden of caring for all things and all events lay upon Him, or He were swayed to and fro together with the body of the world? Or how could we feel any other feeling than that of fear in the presence of such a God who troubles himself about everything?

With the denial of the popular Gods, the denial of demons, of course, goes hand in hand; and, together with Providence, the need of prayer and of prophecy is at the same time negatived. All these notions, according to Epicurus, are the result of ignorance and fear. Pictures seen in dreams have been confounded with real existences; regularity of motion in the heavenly bodies has been mistaken by the ignorant for the work of God; events which accidentally happened in combination with others have been regarded as portents; terrific natural phenomena, storms and earthquakes, have engendered in men’s minds the fear of higher powers. Fear is therefore the basis of religion; and, on the other hand, freedom from fear is the primary object aimed at by philosophy.

For all that, Epicurus was unwilling to renounce belief in the Gods, nor is it credible that this unwillingness was simply a yielding to popular opinion. The language used by the Epicureans certainly gives the impression of sincerity; and the time was past when avowed atheism was attended with danger. Atheism would have been as readily condoned in the time of Epicurus as the deism which denied most unreservedly the popular faith. It is, however, possible to trace the causes which led Epicurus to believe that there are Gods. There was first the general diffusion of a belief in Gods which appeared to him to establish the truth of this belief, and hence he declared the existence of Gods to be something directly certain, and grounded on a primary notion (πρόληψις). Moreover, with his materialistic theory of knowledge he no doubt supposed that the primary notion which convinces us of the existence of Gods arises from the actual contemplation of divine beings, and from the perception of those atom-pictures from which Democritus had already deduced the belief in Gods. And in addition to these theoretical reasons, Epicurus had also another, half æsthetical, half religious—the wish to see his ideal of happiness realised in the person of the Gods, and it is this ideal which determines the character of all his notions respecting them. His Gods are therefore, throughout, human beings. Religious belief only knows beings such as these, or, as Epicurus expresses it, only such beings come before us in those pictures of the Gods which present themselves to our minds, sometimes in sleep, sometimes when we are awake. Reflection, too, convinces us that the human form is the most beautiful, that to it alone reason belongs, and that it is the most appropriate form for perfectly happy beings. Epicurus even went so far as to attribute to the Gods difference of sex. At the same time everything must be eliminated which is not appropriate to a divine being.

The two essential characteristics of the Gods, according to Epicurus, are immortality and perfect happiness. Both of these characteristics would be impaired were we to attribute to the bodies of the Gods the same dense corporeity which belongs to our own. We must, therefore, only assign to them a body analogous to our body, ethereal, and consisting of the finest atoms. Such bodies would be of little use in a world like ours. In fact, they could not live in any world without being exposed to the temporal ruin which will in time overwhelm it, and, meantime, to a state of fear, which would mar their bliss. Epicurus, therefore, assigns the space between the worlds for their habitation, where, as Lucretius remarks, troubled by no storms, they live under a sky ever serene.

Nor can these Gods be supposed to care for the world and the affairs of men, else their happiness would be marred by the most distressing occupation; but perfectly free from care and trouble, and absolutely regardless of the world, in eternal contemplation of their unchanging perfection, they enjoy the most unalloyed happiness. The view which the School formed to itself of this happiness we learn from Philodemus. The Gods are exempt from sleep, sleep being a partial death, and not needed by beings who live without any exertion. And yet he believes that they require nourishment, though this must, of course, be of a kind suited to their nature. They also need dwellings, since every being requires some place wherein to dwell. Were powers of speech to be refused to them, they would be deprived of the highest means of enjoyment—the power of conversing with their equals. Philodemus thinks it probable they use the Greek or some other closely allied language. In short, he imagines the Gods to be a society of Epicurean philosophers, who have everything that they can desire—everlasting life, no care, and perpetual opportunities of sweet converse. Only such Gods,—the Epicureans thought, —need not be feared. Only such Gods are free and pure, and worshipped because of this very perfection. Moreover, these Gods are innumerable. If the number of mortal beings is infinite, the law of counterpoise requires that the number of immortal beings must not be less. If we have only the idea of a limited number of Gods, it is because, owing to their being so much alike, we confound in our minds the innumerable pictures of the Gods which are conveyed to our souls.

Priding themselves, in contrast to the Stoics, on their agreement by means of this theology with the anthropomorphic views of the popular belief, and even outdoing polytheism in the assumption of innumerable Gods, the Epicureans were willing to join in the customary services of religion, without being nearly so anxious as the Stoics to prove themselves in harmony with the popular creed. Whilst the Stoics in their anxiety to do this had plunged head over heels into allegory, no such tendency is observed on the part of the Epicureans. Only the poet of the School gives a few allegorical interpretations of mythical ideas, and he does it with more taste and skill than is usual with the Stoics. On other points the Epicureans, not excluding Lucretius, observe towards the popular faith a negative attitude, that of opposing it by explanations; and by this attitude, without doubt, they rendered one of the most important services to humanity.