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CHAPTER 18 :
IS THERE A CREATOR?
As regards the question about the existence of a creator the Jaina view is identically the same as that of modern science. Substance is eternal, and there is no room for any world-maker, nor the need of one. The properties, attributes and functions of different substances and combinations of substances should suffice to explain the world-process.
It has already been indicated to what extent Jainism differs from modern science in reference to the existence of the soul-substance, which is not recognised by the modern scientist. As we have seen and shall see again more fully, the body is a prison for the soul; assuming, then, that there was a Creator of it, he could not have been, by any possibility, a friend of the soul. The release of the soul from the body to attain perfection is the end in view, as has been already described.
The Christian view also really refused to recognise the being of a creator, though, outwardly, the language of the text, when carelessly interpreted, may be taken to be maintaining the existence of one. Fear of persecution prevented the founders of Christianity, and the early Fathers of the Church, from speaking out their mind openly on the subject. But they gave adequate and startling warnings every now and then, by interposing something in the midst of their descriptions which violently clashes with the notion of a Creator of the world or of the soul.
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