Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then He is not omnipotent.
Is He able but not willing?
Then He is malevolent.
Is God both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is He neither willing nor able?
Then why call him God?
- Epicurus [341-271 BCE]
For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by aponia, the absence of pain and fear, and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and bad, that death is the end of the body and the soul and should therefore not be feared, that the gods do not reward or punish humans, that the universe is infinite and eternal, and that events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space. [source here]
