Lucretius: On the Nature of Things

     Who here loves Philosophical works? *crickets* No Aristotle fans in here? Weird. Okay then. who likes science? *a couple of hands halfway in the air, obviously these people don't know what they like* All right...Well then, who likes poetry? *about the same response* Okay then.  What could ever be better then, than combining them all into one Philosophical view of science written poetically? YAAAAY!
   Not yay. This was quite possibly the most boring book I've ever read. Lucretius was obviously one of those homeschool nerds, whose siblings were his only friends and whose mom locked him in a room his whole life. "Poetry is fun," Yeah, riiight.
   This is the kind of book you DON'T read, and let other people tell you their reviews on it, and you have faith and take their word for it. So, to save you the pain, I will give you the jest of it.
   Basically, it's the evolutionary theory. Have you ever heard and evolutionist say, "Lithen to these Creationisthts, they thound thooo old fathion." *attempt at nerd accent* Well, Dawinists, take a look back, like 2000 years back, and there's the REAL birth of your theory. 99 B.C. to be exact. (And don't even try to say, "It's B.C.E," otherwise I will hunt down, tranquilize you, and you will wake up in the Yak portion of a zoo.)
   It isn't until book IV where things start to get slightly amusing.
   Anyways, Lucretius was pretty off on a lot of what he said, but come to think of it, so are evolutionists. (If you want reasons why evolutionists are, you'll have to comment, then I'll give you answers:P) For one, he says things along the lines of, "Sight is just a pile of atoms, that disperse from the mother of the atoms (i.e. atoms from a couch) and they hit the films of your eyes at just the right time allowing you to see." "Your soul is actually composed of a bunch of atoms, so when you die, it dies as well because it is matter, it can in fact be killed."
  But, he does say there was this big storm of atoms at the beginning of time, which eventually collided and made stars, the sun, the moon, and eventually earth. Earth eventually managed to get in the perfect spot from everything and life forms began to be created. He says people without eyes were some of the first and some missing limbs, some that were half horse, and then, they eventually found fire and magically became normal humans. Sound familiar? Well yes, a half horse is a centaur, but I was more referring to his entire theory. Evolution! The only reason Darwin is credited with founding it is because Lucretius was considered a philosopher. He had no means of trying to find out if any of this was true. It was all speculation.
   One thing he does differ extremely from most philosophers of his day, is that he believes we really have no purpose in life. Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates all believed we were to be virtuous and seek out goodness. But Lucretius believes we got here on accident, we are just a bunch of atoms and chemical reactions, so we have no purpose.
   It's no wonder kids in school today are depressed! They are taught the have no purpose in school. Says principal to drug addicted student, "Oh yeah, you need to be good, but only because we said so, you don't get anything out of it or anything. Cops just don't like it and they're bigger than you and have guns so, you're out of luck."
   Seriously, why on earth do atheists and evolutions believe we need to do good?  Why not keep all your money for yourself? You earned it. Why give it to charities when you are going to disperse into nothingness in the end anyways?
   Next time one of these people tells you they're an evolutionist or atheist, you can say, "Oh, so you believe we don't have a purpose then?" They will try to argue, but you can just reply, "But according to your beliefs, we are just a bunch of chemical reactions. To quote along the lines of a very wise person 'thought and bowel movements have both the same meaning.'" See what they have to say. If they do have something to say, it's simply because they don't want to listen.
  Other than these few things, Lucretius offers very little. But remember: Next time you're doing your science homework and complaining, imagine having to do it in POETRY! Then maybe you'll be a little happier.