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This course investigates the enduring influence of Lucretius’ poetry and philosophy in Western culture and religious thought. Lucretius was a Roman poet whose On the Nature of Things expounds Epicurean physics, cosmology, and ethics. Lucretius teaches that atomistic physics govern the universe and all its phenomena. This radical atheistic materialism challenged the religious, social, and political values of Rome while pushing the boundaries of science and poetry. Lucretius’ controversial influence spans atomic physics to evolutionary biology to Botticelli to Thomas Jefferson to Frankenstein.