Because I’m a stickler for details and would pitch a fit if anyone left my immediately prior post simply as it is (for techical reasons), I’d like to clarify.  Epicurus was not technically an atheist, he simply allowed for the gods to be off at Olympus–which is not a physical place, for E.–enjoying their own goodness, virtue, &c.  His ethics are much more complex than calling him a blatant atheist would account for; it’s simply that insofar as they involve the gods of ancient Greece, they are practically irrelevant.

Because I’m a stickler for details and would pitch a fit if anyone left my immediately prior post simply as it is (for techical reasons), I’d like to clarify.  Epicurus was not technically an atheist, he simply allowed for the gods to be off at Olympus–which is not a physical place, for E.–enjoying their own goodness, virtue, &c.  His ethics are much more complex than calling him a blatant atheist would account for; it’s simply that insofar as they involve the gods of ancient Greece, they are practically irrelevant.