________________
Jainism not an Atheism
Those who believe in a creator sometimes look upon Jainism as an atheistic religion, but Jainism cannot properly be so called. Jainism does not deny the existence of God (Parmatman.) God is described in Jain scriptures, but there is a difference between the description of God as given in these books and the description given in the religious books of other faiths. The chief difference is that while God is described in the books of some other faiths as being a creator and ruler, God is not so described in the Jain books. God, according to the Jain description, is an all-knowing and perfectly happy soul with infinite capacities of activity, a pure and perfect soul without any material body, a being that cannot perish or become degenerate.
To disbelieve in the existence of a thing is not the same as not attributing to that thing some particular quality, In believing in the existence of soul in a pure and perfect state, Jainism cannot be classed with those who do not believe in the existence of soul different from the body or different from matter. Pure soul and God are in reality one and the same thing, and the final goal of any particular soul is to become pure and perfect ; in other words to become a God with all the attributes of divinity which, in the Jain faith, do not include creating and ruling.
Atheists properly speaking are those who deny the existence of soul and maintain that there is no such thing as
