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the rule that existence and non-existence are two contradictory terms. Magic is not entertainable in true religion or true philosophy.
JAIN JOURNAL
There remains of course, the argument that if a Supreme God did not create substances out of nothing, He created them either (1) from some substance already existing and eternal, or (2) from His own sub
stance.
It is not necessary to say (1) that substances were created from some other substance already existing, for we may just as well acknowledge that the now existing substances may be eternal. In any case, substances never change their nature and we never find one substance arising from another; for example, compounds of matter are ever changing, but the elements which make up compounds always remain the same.
Regarding the remaining theory (2) that a Supreme God created living and non-living substances out of His own substance; it is very difficult to find out first of all what is meant by God, excepting as a mental abstraction, evolved from a fallacious idea of a first cause. We frequently hear of God being described as the "first cause", or the "universal mind", but these terms are meaningless in themselves, and by no means explain the substance of God.
If God means the living substance, then it may be said without hesitation that dead, unconscious matter, though possessed of forces, cannot possibly arise out of the living, conscious, intelligent substance; neither of course, can the conscious, intelligent substance be created from non-living matter. The scientific explanation of this is the attributes of each of these two kinds of substance, living and non-living, are totally different, and they have nothing in common with each other, save the fact of existence as substance. We must not shut our eyes to scientific reality and introduce a God with a magic wand, who creates non-living matter out of the living substance.
The sweeping statement that many un-thinking people make, namely, "God can do anything", is not likely to lead us to a knowledge of truth, because it can be used to cover up anything when false reasoning comes to a standstill. The question of creation does not arise at all when the eternal nature of substance is understood.
The universe, therefore, as a whole is eternal, and is self-subsisting and self-operating by the natural forces which are eternally inherent in
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