How Does Lucretius Contribute To Fear Of Death

Lucretius argued that one would eventually live in a state of tranquility if they did not spend time and effort fretting over the ideas of divine intervention and unavoidable death, “then these things chase fear-produced and frightened religious superstitions from the mind, and fears of death then leave your hearts unoccupied and free from care” (2.44). Lucretius describes the movements of atoms by saying that they swerve at unspecified times. This swerving leads to the atoms hitting each other and binding together, and it is the sole reason things exist and interact with each other. Lucretius states that this is evidence of free will,
“But so that the mind itself has no internal necessity in performing all of its actions, and is not forced
There is an impulse to fear death which exists due to the incessant involvement of religious ideas of damnation throughout time. Per Lucretius, this fear of death is completely theoretical, and is overall completely invalid; he argues that there is nothing after death, therefore, people have no reason to fear it. It is important to note not how he counters religion, but how he bases it upon his own ideas of atomism. Lucretius argues that the whole of the human body, mind and physique, are created from specific kinds of atoms. A principle idea of atomism is that the atoms people are comprised of provide the basis for the human senses, such as taste, smell, touch, etc. Lucretius states that the soul is comprised of four distinct types of atoms: breath, heat, air, and an unnamed fourth, that is more mobile than the other three (3.231). Because these senses may occur at any point on the surface of or inside of the body, it may be argued that the soul must be spread evenly throughout the physical body. Atomism says that no atoms are ever created or destroyed, but rather disassemble and move on to other organisms after the host dies. It can be assumed that the soul undergoes the same process. By stating “that what existed before has perished and what exists now was created now” (3.676), Lucretius justifies that the soul as a unit is as impermanent as the body and after death, both will dissolve into individual atoms. Lucretius links the body to a vessel, and the soul to a liquid inside, mentioning that “when vessels are shattered you perceive the moisture flowing in all directions and the liquid departing…understand that the soul too is poured out and perishes much more quickly… as soon as it is taken away from human limbs and departs” (3.434). By using this analogy, Lucretius only strengthens his