To Epicurus the sorrow in man’s heart and the evil in his practices are mainly due to religion. The chief source of the wretchedness of the world is to be found in the crushing fears of religious belief. Epicurus has in mind the exaggerated ceremonies and mystical beliefs of the Orient, where his mother had been a priestess. From this memory he was reacting. Religion pollutes men’s fancies, clouds the future with superstitious fears, and puts repose and happiness beyond our reach. In the first place, religion carries with it the fear of death. In modern times the idea of life after death is an added consolation. In the time of Epicurus death meant the giving up of the present life for a dim, sunless region of flitting shades bordering on the edge of Tartarus. No philosophical mind can be happy, according to Epicurus, if it contains the religious conception of death and the future life. Again, religion conceives the world of nature as created and operated by the gods. It is forever explaining nature-phenomena as miraculous and supernatural. The tranquil mind must believe in a nature world that is separated from miraculous intervention, and freed from oversight. The world must be a dependable world. Lastly, religion conceives of the gods as always busying themselves with the affairs of men. Men must secure their favor and avert their wrath by constant offerings. The religious man wastes his time and consumes his peace in the fear that the gods are not propitiated. The Epicurean seeks to build up the life of the individual. He seeks a tranquillity that is independent of everything. Religious belief with its interfering gods would thwart his ideal. Hence the chief concern of the Epicurean was to banish from life every conception of divine government. The gods exist, but they live quite apart from men. Their dwelling is in inter-stellar space amid the numberless worlds. They have nothing to do with the events of this world, but are only glorified actualizations of the philosophic ideal of soul-satisfying peace. The more the teleological conception of nature became the common ground of the Academy, the Lyceum, and the Porch, the more did the Epicureans isolate themselves by opposing the conception.