Lucretius On The Nature Of Things Analysis

The Online Library of Liberty published a translation of Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things, as well as a brief analysis of its meaning. According to the Online Library of Liberty, On the Nature of Things consists of his ideas (derived from Greek philosophy) that the world is dictated by material forces and natural laws, rather than religion, and therefore gods and death have no reason to intimidate one. The article’s author writes, "Lucretius expounds the Epicurian view that the world can be explained by the operation of material forces and natural laws and thus one should not fear the gods or death.... Proof: all things require fixed seeds…. The impiety of Religion…. Death is nothing to us” ("On the Nature of Things [1910]"). The author
It is my belief that On the Nature of Things is a piece in which Lucretius challenges religious views with the Greek ideas of a world governed by natural laws. Early in the piece, Lucretius states, “A Greek it was…. Whence he to us, a conqueror, reports / What things can rise to being, what cannot, / and by what law to each its scope prescribed, / it's boundary stone that clings so deep in Time. / Wherefore religion now is under foot” (Lucretius 134). Through these words, Lucretius conveys the ideas that a Greek was the first to challenge religious teachings, and he was met with enough success to return with his own opposing teachings about what can or can’t exist, as well as the ancient laws responsible, and effectively surpassed religious ideas. I believe that this is where Lucretius establishes his thesis, and the following details about fixed seeds, religion’s faults, and death are simply supporting details to back this thesis. Therefore, I believe that On the Nature of Things is about Lucretius’s belief in Greek ideas about natural phenomenon that challenge and surpass traditional religious teachings. Although the piece may be unified by this central idea, it does suffer some unresolved