id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
en-wikipedia-org-6925		De rerum natura - Wikipedia			.html	text/html	7393	847	71	De rerum natura (Latin: [deː ˈreːrʊn naːˈtuːraː]; On the Nature of Things) is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (c. After the poem was rediscovered and made its rounds across Europe and beyond, numerous thinkers began to see Lucretius's Epicureanism as a "threat synonymous with atheism."[23] Some Christian apologists viewed De rerum natura as an atheist manifesto and a dangerous foil to be thwarted.[23] However, at that time the label was extremely broad and did not necessarily mean a denial of divine entities (for example, some large Christian sects labelled dissenting groups as atheists).[24] What is more, Lucretius does not deny the existence of deities;[25][26] he simply argues that they did not create the universe, that they do not care about human affairs, and that they do not intervene in the world.[23] Regardless, due to the ideas espoused in the poem, much of Lucretius's work was seen by many as direct a challenge to theistic, Christian belief.[27] The historian Ada Palmer has labelled six ideas in Lucretius's thought (viz.	./cache/en-wikipedia-org-6925.html	./txt/en-wikipedia-org-6925.txt