Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
to be punished or rewarded on the Judgment Day, and to be sent to heaven or hell, for there is no third place for souls to go to in the Cosmogony of popular Theism. Why should it be sent to one place rather than the other, seems to be a matter of pure arbitrary will, in the absence of any rules for the exercise of a judicial discretion. But this is sufficiently absurd to be acceptable to reason. With due respect to our beloved brethren who put their faith in these doctrines, we are constrained to observe that notions such as these might have passed for good sense or sound philosophy in the dark days of the medieval period, but that in the twentieth century of our civilization intelligent people have a right to expect consistent reason rather than a torrent of chaotic speech from those who set themselves up as the spiritual teachers of men. : Be this as it may, the main point is, whether it is l'easonable to ascribe the creation of souls to a god ? As to this the following argument, it is hoped, might suffice to cure us of our mad infatuation for the notion of creation of simple substances which cannot be deemed to be otherwise than as eternally existing in nature. - If soul is spirit, either God manufactures it out of his own body, for he is said to be pure spirit, or out of a lump of spiritual clay' which he might possess.* But, in the first case, each created soul would go to reduce the being of God, which is absurd, since God
* It is worth noticing that it is simply impossible for a real, that is to say, simple individuality or being, to divide itself, since a simple substance is not liable to division or disruption, having no parts which might be separated off from one another.