This paper compares the lifestyles advocated by Paul and Lucretius from the New Testament. The New and Old Testament are two hugely influential books in human society, and as a result, there are large groups of people who live their lives based on the stories found within them.
In the New Testament Paul describes human life as being perishable and life in the Kingdom of God as being imperishable, with the path to this imperishable existence through faith in Jesus Christ as the son of God. Paul proclaims that this present state of being serves no purpose other than providing a gateway to imperishability in the next world. Lucretius, on the other hand, claims that what is imperishable is what exists in the here and now, and that this material world is all there is. Lucretius’s stance refutes Paul’s conception point for point, concluding that what is important is the present reality, not some notion of salvation, because what exists right now is all that truly exists.