Was Epicurus an Atheist?

Epicurus believed in gods, but those gods did not control or micromanage reality in real-time.

Instead, reality to them was dominated by chance.

This is different from Catholic and Newton’s belief where God was in control each second.

Both Newton and Epicurus had matter as their main medium for reality. But they differ in the CONTROL of that reality.

Bacon is in the middle of Newton and Epicurus.

Like atheist Epicurus, he does not believe that God is micromanaging reality.

Like theist Newton, he does not believe that reality is governed by chance.

According to the classical system (specifically Spinoza and Hume), pantheist and deism are atheist since the control of reality can only be either free (atheist) or nonfree (theist).

Classical Atheism therefore aims to free up reality or maximize existence since its foundational maxim is “mentality creates reality”.

In this system, ‘agnostic’ would be not bothering to think about how reality is controlled, like you not caring what your mobile service provider is as long as you can call someone.