Jainism Christianity and Science

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

Page 46

34
JAINISM, CHRISTIANITY & SCIENCE
picked up by anybody else. An individuality that endures, that itself gathers up the past into the present, that retains and remembers and adjusts the past to the future is requisite for long, continuous mental operations.
The above facts of observation suffice to show that the thing or substance, whose manifestation consciousness is, is not a composite but a simple one in itself, though it is associated with a composite and compounded body of matter. We shall have occasion to study the nature of this association and the laws governing the union and separation of spirit and matter later on. Modern Science has never studied this aspect of the question. Physics, Chemistry, and Biology are alike incompetent to deal with the facts and phenomena of consciousness. Within their own jurisdiction, the conclusion that they have not come across what may be termed' soul'apart from matter is correct. The subject belongs to the department of Psychology rather than to any other materialistic science. Those of the psychologists who have studied the unitary aspect of life have been compelled, like Mr. Wm. McDougall, the author of " Physiological Psychology" to acknowledge the existence of an immaterial substance performing unitary functions, such as matter can never perform. Most of the psychologists, however, decline to investigate the subject, and none of these have applied their minds to the facts noted above. Under these circumstances, it cannot be said that modern science has found that there is no such thing as 'soul.' The point, in reality, has never been in issue in the proper way. The scientists were also misled by dogmatic Theology which