The Riddle of Epicurus

[Anti-World]

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?"
When the universe was created the laws in place did not make matter able or willing to be created. The first law of thermodynamics states that molecules naturally want to become less complex and have less energy yet we see today that, for some reason, this was not the case.

 

[Paraprakrti]

We suffer from ignorance. Epicurus wants God to prevent the choice to ignore, but on the other hand he wants to act and enjoy independently from God. Hypocrisy falls under the category of ignorance.

 

[Willamena]

Epicurus' poem is a stab against those who would allocate any attributes to god in addition to those that define the divine: "immortal and blessed*." For an agnostic, such as myself, it can be seen as a ward against the ideologies that would mistake the image of God for god.

Epicurus is saying that any traits, like "omnipotence", are foolishness. The irony is that he railed against this in the 2nd Century BC, and such thinking is still prevailant today.

* According to Wikipedia.