I was raised in a non-religious house as a ‘nothing’. My parents encouraged me to check out religions to see if one ‘fit’. None really did, but I came out of that having read a lot of religious documents (NT, OT, Q’ran, Ghita). I came out as an agnostic atheist (pretty sure there are no gods, but that’s open to question). Epicurus seems to have taught (very few of his writings have withstood Christianity) that there are gods — but, as gods, they’re so far beyond us that they don’t care what we do. He could be right — and his views pretty much summarize mine.

Anyway, Christianity. If you read the NT, a key precept seems to be ‘forgive people’. Excellent, potentially life-changing advice! I with more Christians would do it. Then there’s some stuff about ‘life everlasting’, which I can see as important, if you buy it. Speaking of which, a couple of years ago I was in the hospital with a brain infection, came very close to dying. I was totally OK with things ending — and just nothing afterwards. I’d had a good run, had made a positive impact on people around me. I didn’t want to die (and, as you can tell, I didn’t) but I was at peace with it.

I’d point out that another Jewish sect, the Pharisees, also promised ‘life eternal’ — which might be why you see negative comments about them in the NT rather than, say,the Cohens. They did similar to the teachings of Epicurus, turning ‘Epicurean” to mean being focused on appreciating eating and drinking — a very small part of what he taught.