Editing Epicureanism (section)

====Gods====
Epicureanism does not deny the existence of the gods; rather it denies their involvement in the world. According to Epicureanism, the gods do not interfere with human lives or the rest of the universe in any way<ref name="O'Keefe-2010o">{{harvnb|O'Keefe|2010|pp=155–156}}</ref> – thus, it shuns the idea that frightening weather events are divine retribution.<ref>James Warren (ed.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism'', p. 124</ref> One of the fears the Epicurean ought to be freed from is fear relating to the actions of the gods.<ref>James Warren (ed.), ''The Cambridge companion to Epicureanism'', p. 105</ref>

The manner in which the Epicurean gods exist is still disputed. Some scholars say that Epicureanism believes that the gods exist outside the mind as material objects (the [[Philosophical realism|realist]] position), while others assert that the gods only exist in our minds as ideals (the [[Idealism|idealist]] position).<ref name="O'Keefe-2010o" /><ref name="Sedley-2011">{{Cite book|title=Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition|url=https://archive.org/details/epicurusepicurea00fish|url-access=limited|last=Sedley|first=David|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|editor-last=Fish|editor-first=Jeffrey|location=United Kingdom|pages=[https://archive.org/details/epicurusepicurea00fish/page/n42 29]–30|chapter=Epicurus' theological innatism|isbn=9780521194785|editor-last2=Sanders|editor-first2=Kirk R.}}</ref><ref name="Konstan-2011">{{Cite book|title=Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition|url=https://archive.org/details/epicurusepicurea00fish|url-access=limited|last=Konstan|first=David|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|editor-last=Fish|editor-first=Jeffrey|location=United Kingdom|pages=[https://archive.org/details/epicurusepicurea00fish/page/n66 53]–54|chapter=Epicurus on the gods|isbn=9780521194785|editor-last2=Sanders|editor-first2=Kirk R.}}</ref> The realist position holds that Epicureans understand the gods as existing as physical and immortal beings made of atoms that reside somewhere in reality.<ref name="O'Keefe-2010o" /><ref name="Konstan-2011" /> However, the gods are completely separate from the rest of reality; they are uninterested in it, play no role in it, and remain completely undisturbed by it.<ref>{{Cite journal|author1-link=Jaap Mansfeld|last=Mansfeld|first=Jaap|date=1993|title=Aspects of Epicurean Theology|journal=Mnemosyne|volume=46|issue=2|pages=176–178|doi=10.1163/156852593X00484}}</ref> Instead, the gods live in what is called the ''metakosmia'', or the space between worlds.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Oxford Readings in Classical Studies: Lucretius|last=Buchheit|first=Vinzenz|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|editor-last=Gale|editor-first=Monica R.|location=New York, NY|pages=110–111|chapter=Epicurus' Triumph of the Mind}}</ref> Contrarily, the idealist (sometimes called the "non-realist position" to avoid confusion) position holds that the gods are just idealized forms of the best human life,<ref name="Sedley-2011"/><ref>{{harvnb| O'Keefe| 2010| pp=158–159}}</ref> and it is thought that the gods were emblematic of the life one should aspire towards.<ref name="Sedley-2011"/> The debate between these two positions was revived by A. A. Long and David Sedley in their 1987 book, ''The Hellenistic Philosophers'', in which the two argued in favour of the idealist position.<ref name="Sedley-2011"/><ref name="Konstan-2011" /> While a scholarly consensus has yet to be reached, the realist position remains the prevailing viewpoint at this time.<ref name="Sedley-2011"/><ref name="Konstan-2011" />