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Would Epicurus approve of Biblical or Quranic studies in order to confident in disproving it?

  • wbernys
  • January 22, 2026 at 3:24 PM
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    wbernys
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    • January 22, 2026 at 3:24 PM
    • #1

    Didn't really know where to put this thread.

    So before I became a full fledged Epicurean I was quite addicted to academic study of the Bible and Quran. Not for religious reasons but to be confident in my own opposition to religion. When I saw things like the "minimal facts" argument about Jesus empty tomb or ressurection or the Quranic scientific miracles I looked to various sources in order to be confident in refuting them.

    Would Epicurus approve of this, or would he think simply looking toward nature was enough and trying to refute obviously nonsense texts was a waste of time? I know he apparently disliked the study of Homer, seeing it as a waste of energy but I wonder if the field of modern apologetics would cause him to change his outlook if he were around today.

    Edited once, last by wbernys (January 22, 2026 at 3:57 PM).

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    • January 22, 2026 at 3:42 PM
    • #2

    By coincidence I was posting earlier about an article by David Sedley, in which he makes the point that fundamental Epicurean argument in favor of both atomism and the pleasure of ethics involves refuting claims that contradict the view that you are asserting.

    I don't see how it's possible to provide a comprehensive refutation of adverse arguments unless you understand them, and understanding them involves at least some degree of studying them.

    I can see that it's possible to carry studying the opposition so that you can "be the devil's advocate" too far, but I doubt that any balanced person would be in danger of making that mistake.

    The statement by Frances Wright I recently cited from Chapter Nine of A Few Days In Athens also applies:

    Quote

    With regard to the sciences, if it be said, that they are neglected among us, I do not say that our master, though himself versed in them, as in all other branches of knowledge, greatly recommends them to our study but that they are not unknown, let Polyoenus be evidence.

    “He, one of the most amiable men of our school, and one most highly favored by our master, you must have heard mentioned throughout Greece as a profound geometrician.”

    “Yes,” replied Theon, “but I have also heard, that since entering the garden, he has ceased to respect his science.”

    “I am not aware of that,” said Leontium, “though I believe he no longer devotes to it all his time, and all his faculties. Epicurus called him from his diagrams, to open to him the secrets of physics, and the beauties of ethics; to show him the springs of human action, and lead him to the study of the human mind. He taught him, that any single study, however useful and noble in itself, was yet unworthy the entire employ of a curious and powerful intellect; that the man who pursued one line of knowledge, to the exclusion of others, though he should follow it up to its very head, would never be either learned or wise; that he who pursues knowledge, should think no branch of it unworthy attention; least of all, should he confine it to those which are unconnected with the business, and add nothing to the pleasures of life; that further not our acquaintance with ourselves, nor our fellows; that tend not to enlarge the sphere of our affections, to multiply our ideas and sensations, nor extend the scope of our inquiries. On this ground, he blamed the devotion of Polyoenus to a science that leads to other truths than those of virtue, to other study than that of man.”


    Also - You included Biblical and Quranic in your title -- I would include Talmudic in that list as well, and no doubt others too. We wouldn't want any of the usual suspects to feel left out! :)

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    • January 22, 2026 at 3:57 PM
    • #3
    Quote

    He taught him, that any single study, however useful and noble in itself, was yet unworthy the entire employ of a curious and powerful intellect; that the man who pursued one line of knowledge, to the exclusion of others, though he should follow it up to its very head, would never be either learned or wise; that he who pursues knowledge, should think no branch of it unworthy attention; least of all, should he confine it to those which are unconnected with the business, and add nothing to the pleasures of life

    Frances Wright for the win!

    I wonder if another reason he potentially didn't try to refute poetry so much was because of the extreme religious diversity in ancient Hreece with some having very different views on Homer, who was not really seen as central to proving their religion to be true. (Zeno of citium interpreting it metaphorically for example) unlike today where the bible or Quran are seen as the proofs of religious faith, with various bad arguments.

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