When you think about it logically, it really isn't that impressive an idea at all.

As if the Greeks had come up with some earth-shattering philosophical insight which once and for all determined the course of western civilization.

Here's the idea, quite simple actually. Everything in the universe is made up of material objects called atoms which are indivisible units of matter, the smallest possible dots of what is.

I'm not impressed.

What it all boils down to is this. Every given object can be divided into smaller and smaller pieces indefinitely or not. If not then we reach a logical limit, otherwise there is no known speck of matter which cannot be further sliced in two.

It is or it is not. Flip a coin, roll the dice, or use another less random more emotional means of deciding for yourself. It's one or the other. The final decision is no less than a choice between two limits.

For all we know, some other Greek type of philosopher person could have been born a century earlier who could have just as easily decided the other way around. And then what?

There is no smallest physical object which cannot be further split into two smaller objects. And then again and then again ad infinitum.

Everything in the known universe is infinitely divisible, so there we have it.

In some future entry I will cover the non-physical aspects of reality for which a whole other set of natural laws apply.