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"Epicurus's philosophy exercised so widespread an influence that for a long time it was touch and go whether Christianity might not have to give way before it," writes Lawrence Durrell in a tone of lament.
Being told to do whatever you want and that there is no God to to fear is as attractive to people today as it was in Rome. It's the same ancient battle.
Epicurus did not tell people to do whatever they want. Rather his philosphy sounds rather like Bhuddism, with it’s emphasis on rampant desire as a source of unhappiness. It sounds as if he favored simple, low consumption living. The article points out that the use that was made of his name, epicurian, is the antithesis of his viewpoint.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicureanism
[snip] ...founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following Aristippus — about whom very little is known — Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear (ataraxia) as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia) through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of our desires. The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form. Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it quite different from “hedonism” as it is commonly understood. [end]