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Almost every religion attributes four features to God namely 1. infinite power, 2. infinite apprehension, 3. infinite knowledge, and 4 infinite joy. Jainism is not an atheism as generally characterized, but a theism because it holds that every soul when perfected and fully developed becomes the true God possessing the aforesaid four features. In Jainism these four features are called 'Ananta Chatustaya.' It is atheison because it depjes God to be the creator of the universe. Thus from one point of view Jajoism is an atheism 1 and from the other view angle a theism.
-Polyaka
THE JAINA ATHEISM
Dr. Harendra Prasad Verma M.A. (Guld Medalist), Ph.D., D.Litt., Reader in Philosophy, Bhagalpur University, (Bihar).
He grants unchartered providen’ss to his devotees and is the Moral Governor of the universe. Atheism rejects all these assumptions, because it does not believe in God at all. If there is no God, the question of His Creatorship, etc.. does not a ise.
Jainism is generally characterized as atheistic. Atheism is the anti- thesis of theism; it is the complete denial of theism, or as Atkinson Lee points out, “Atheism is a theory con-
erning God-a theory which is essen- tially negative."1 "It is rejection of belief in Gid":2 The theists maintain that whatever is in the universe owes its existence to God who is a personal being. He is the creator, maintainer and destroyer of the universe. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, benevolen!, kind, honest, just, etc.
It would be profitable here to distinguish between Atheism and Anti
theism, Atheism is the complete denial of theism as it rejicts all beliefs in God, whereas anti-theism is opposed to theism in certain respects. A theory which accepts God but denies the
महावीर जयन्ती स्मारिका 78
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