Materialism vs Idealism

            History tells us very little of Titus Lucretius Carus, but one .
             can see from reading his work that he has a strong dislike .
             towards religious superstition, which he claims is the root of .
             human fear and in turn the cause of impious acts. Although he .
             does not deny the existence of a god, his work is aimed at .
             proving that the world is not guided or controlled by a divinity. .
             Lucretius asserts that matter exists in the form of atoms, which .
             move around the universe in an empty space. This empty space, or .
             vacuity, allows for the movement of the atoms and without it .
             everything would be one mass. He explains that matter and .
             vacuity can not occupy the same space, ".where there is empty .
             space, there matter is not.", and these two things make up the .
             entire universe. These invisible particles come together to form .
             material objects, you and I are made of the same atoms as a chair .
             or a tree. When the tree dies or the chair is thrown into a fire .
             the atoms do not burn up or die, but are dispersed back into .
             the vacuity. The atoms alone are without mind or secondary .
             qualities, but they can combine to form living and thinking .
             objects, along with sound, color, taste, etc. Atoms form life, .
             consciousness, and the soul, and when our body dies there is .
             nothing left of the latter except for its parts, which randomly .
             become parts of other forms. .
             Matter is never ending reality, only changing in its form. In the .
             philosophical system developed by Irish philosopher George .
             Berkeley, Idealism, Berkeley states that physical objects, .
             matter, do not exist independent of the mind. The pencil that I .
             am writing this essay with would not exist if I were not .
             perceiving it with my senses, but in the dialogue between Hylus .
             and Philonous Berkeley attempts to show things can and do exist .
             apart from the human mind and our perception, but only because .
             there is a mind in which all ideas are perceived or a deity that .
             creates perception in the human mind, either way its God.