Jainism Christianity and Science

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: The Indian Press Allahabad

Page 42

32
JAINISM, CHRISTIANITY & SCIENCE
but is the soul itself exercised in respiration; although that influence which either God on the one hand, or the devil on the other, has breathed upon it, must be regarded in the light of an additional ele. ment,"> Tertullian) A.N.C.L. vol. sv. P. 451.
"'Beloved,' says he, 'now are we the sons of God,' not by natural affection, but because we have God as our father. For
it is the greater love that, seeing we have no relationship to God, He nevertheless loves us and calls us His sons. And it hath not yet appeared what we shall be;' that is, to what kind of glory we shall attain. 'For if He shall be manifested, '--that is, if we are made perfect, we shall be like Him,' as reposing and justified, pure in virtue, so that we may see Him' (His countenance) 'as He is,' by comprehension."-A.N.C.L. vol. xxiv. pp. 151-152.
Now for the scientific view of the question. There are several facts of observation which leave no room for doubt that there should be a simple substance in us which is responsible for our psychic life. These facts are :
1. Perception will be impossible for a composite substance. Perception must be distinguished from the stimulus, and also from the object. The object is material, the stimulus is composed of matter and energy, but perception is an affection-a sense of awareness in other words, a state of our consciousness. If a state of consciousness could be distributed over the parts of a compound substance, different bits of it would be cognized by different parts of the perceiving thing separately; there would be no part to cognize the whole object, unless you allowed a multitude of criss-cross messages, running at top speed, from one part to all other parts, which would be absurd.
2. The subject of logical deduction must itself be a simple indivisible unit, that is to say, an individual. If the two premises and the conclusion are cognized by