The Nature of Things - Lucretius

I confess that I found it difficult to plough through this text despite the amazing beauty in Lucretius' poetry. The very advanced scientific thought is just absolutely astounding.  It was difficult to stay focused as someone whose strength does not lie in philosophy or the sciences...

Steve is right.  In reading the first four weeks of LS 800's texts, the questions we ask as humans haven't changed.  We are still questioning, theorizing the same things about human nature.  It is amazing to think how much we are like the people thousands of years before us.

Lucretius' writing and rationales remind me of many of the ideas atheists, including myself espouse (except that Lucretius' ideas were much more embedded in science) in the sense that it is absurd to think that somehow, we as humans are special and the centre of God's universe, or that God design everything in the universe.  At the time, the honour bestowed onto science and/or Epicurus can be arguable seen as almost religious.  I do not necessarily think that this is the case but it did make me think about the hardcore scientific/Darwinian absolutist atheists who shun all religion and spirituality and to see where Lucretius' ideas stand in all this.

Lucretius' (or Epicurus') ideas of mitigating anxiety in life and the fear of death is very Buddhist to me.  It's a philosophy (rather than religion) that makes great sense to me.  Mitigate suffering/discontent in life. Great advice to give to anyone if you ask me.  it's rather cliché but true - you only have one life to live, so why not live it to its fullest?  His ideas of the cycles of birth, death and decay remind me of Hindu/Buddhist ideas of birth/rebirth/reincarnation.  I see them as parallel ideas, just communicated in different ways.

Lucretius' writing is highly evocative, communicating the beauty of nature and more generally of life well.  He writes about marveling at the stars and skies in Book II - something we did as children but the wonderment seems to fizzle from us as adults.  His sense of wonderment or at the very least his ability to communicate his sense of wonderment reminds me of the heightened self and sensory awareness when one is on psychedelic substances.