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Another possible classification is as uttar-vada.33 In Hinduism, avatars are God or gods that descend to the level of human. This is known as avatar-vada. In Jainism, the humans rise to the level of God, and can be known as uttar-vada. Uttar meaning "ascend."
Deism is the belief that God exists but does not intervene in the world beyond what is necessary to create it. The obvious issue here is that the God of Jainism is not a creator God. But both deism and Jain theism believe in a non-interventionist God.
Nontheists do not affirm or negate the existence of God. They are likely to understand God as a symbol of human values and aspirations. Similarly, the Jain God is a symbol of human values and aspirations, but the important difference is that in Jainism God actually exists in the Siddha-Loka.
Conclusion
All of these different classifications of religions bring something to the table of Jain theism, but it is gunanutheism, the worship of divine attributes to foster them in the self, that most accurately describes Jainism.
33
Dr. Kusum Jain, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Conversation on July 4th, 2007.
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STUDY NOTES version 4.0
