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.