Eikas cheers to all! We have a new Society of Epicurus Q and A. This month, Psychology Today published the essay It’s time to give up the ghost idea, which presents arguments that are very in line with Epicurean philosophy concerning the Platonic / supernatural soul. On our social media, we have been sharing quotes from Mill’s essay / short book titled On Liberty, which was a great pleasure to read.
The YouTube channel Real History published Herculaneum: A Fate Worse Than Pompeii, Vesuvius Uncovered, which focuses on the archaeological discoveries at the site. We have uploaded recordings of several of our past Eikas programs for the educational benefit of all:
November 2021 – The Method of Multiple Explanations
January 2022 – On Moral Development
February 2022 – Coping with Loss and Mortality
March 2022 – Friendship, A Divine Good
April 2022 – Parrhesia, the Practice of Frank Criticism
June 2022 – Issues in Epicurean Friendship: Marriage and Sex
July 2022 – The Women of the Epicurean Garden
The various decisions that have come out of the current conservative Justices of the US Supreme Court in recent weeks have created a new paradigm in terms of civil rights. Never before in US history had so many civil rights been under threat of being rolled back. Never (at least in recent memory) had this much religiosity sought to shove itself into our private and public lives. Curious addendum to our last Eikas message on the nature of rights. And never since the Spanish Inquisition had fascist elements within the Catholic Church had so much power over the judicial branch of a Western country’s government.
Of the court’s decisions, the one favoring prayer at public events is a disturbing one for those of us who strongly support the separation of church and state, since this looks like government-endorsed (and perhaps enforced?) religiosity. But that’s outside of our control (except, maybe, when it’s time to vote). When I think of constructive Epicurean answers to the crisis our Western secular values are in, I remember that Epicurus was not against public piety–even if he must have shared my suspicions about the type of religious propaganda that often finds its way into public prayer … but then again, even Jesus in Matthew 6 shares my suspicion.
If you’re an Epicurean (or an Atheist or Humanist), and wish to be a cooperative and engaged citizen, and you are called upon to pray, and you wish to use a prayer that is aligned with the study of nature, then here is a prayer that Epicureans have been using for over two thousand years:
“We thank Nature because she made the necessary things easy to get, and because the things that are hard to get she made them unnecessary.”
The prayer paraphrases insights from the meleta derived from Principal Doctrines 26, 29 and 30. It’s also an opportunity or reminder to engage in the practice of gratitude, which is beneficial for our happiness. Also, since Epicureans do not believe in petitionary prayer (except as poetry), our gratitude prayer is probably our most prudent and constructive contribution to the discussion of prayer in the public sphere.
