Pleasure and the limits of desire › Removing fear of the gods

Epicurus does not introduce his ethics by denying that gods exist. He tells Menoeceus to conceive of a god as immortal and blessed, and to reject beliefs incompatible with that condition. The target is a picture of divine life entangled with the passions and concerns that disturb human beings. In Principal Doctrine 1, a blessed being neither suffers trouble nor causes trouble to another. Letter, 123–124; Principal Doctrines, 1.

The practical consequence is freedom from fear of divine anger or the need to secure divine favors. This follows from Epicurus's conception of blessedness. It is not a proof that begins from assumptions shared by every religious tradition. A critic who thinks divine perfection is compatible with active care for human beings may dispute the inference from blessedness to nonintervention. Presenting Epicurus as simply having disproved religion would obscure that disagreement.

His argument also shows the connection between an apparently abstract belief and an ordinary fear. If you believe that misfortune signals divine hostility, every setback can demand an explanation of what you did wrong. Epicurus challenges the belief that makes such fear intelligible. Whether one accepts his theology or rejects it, the method is recognizable: ask which view of the world is sustaining the anxiety, then examine that view.