To begin with, the Epicureans were materialists. They believed that all of existence results from the chance collision of indivisible material bits called "atoms", cascading in the infinite void. We now understand atoms, via modern physics, as things that can be further divided, but by this term the Epicureans simply meant the smallest bits that could be conceived. The word literally means "indivisible" (atomos). These bits aggregate into larger bodies, and in the process of cosmic evolution have brought about life forms such as ourselves.
