'Death Is Nothing to Us': Epicurus on Death and the Gods

Epicurus believed that two fears, of the gods and of death, cause most human anxiety, and he offered arguments against both. On the gods, he did not deny they exist, but he argued that perfectly blessed beings would live untroubled lives and would not concern themselves with human affairs, punishments or rewards. On death, his famous argument runs: when we exist, death is not present, and when death is present, we no longer exist.

Since good and bad require sensation, and death is the end of sensation, death cannot harm us. Lucretius later added the 'symmetry argument': we did not fear the eternity before our birth, so why fear the eternity after death? Critics reply that death can still deprive us of goods we would have enjoyed. Epicurus' arguments were summarized as the 'four-part cure': do not fear the gods, do not fear death, the good is easy to get, and the terrible is easy to endure.