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Sout
no such intelligent being is even an object of our perceptual observation. The contention that the creator is an imperceptible being is also unsound. If the reason or the ground be perceptible things, the consequent or the object of the conclusion will also be perceptible. It is not to be argued that the creator may be imperceptible, just as fire within the hill, which is inferred from the observation of smoke, is unseen. For, the fire in itself is not imperceptible; it is not observed, as there is some obstacle. So, the analogy does not hold good in the case of the creator who is supposed to be an essentially imperceptible being. Lastly, the Jaina's point out that although a thing may have a beginning, it may not have an intelligent creator. We can guess a thing as man-made i.e. made by an intelligent being; but the nature of the things of the universe e.g. the earth, the mountain etc. so very different from the nature of man-made things, that it is unreasonable to suppose an intelligent creator of those. If thus there is no creator of the things of the universe, the theory that the creator is the only omniscient being, falls to the ground". (My translation of the Pramāṇa-naya-tattvālokālaṁkāra).
Any comments on the above line of Jaina criticism of the theistic theory is uncalled for here. We shall conclude by simply pointing out that the two main arguments of the present day anti-theistic thinkers against the theistic position can be traced in the above Jaina criticism. In the Jaina contention that the creator, if there were any, would have been an object of perception, is fore-shadowed the charge of anthropo-morphism levelled against theism;, secondly, the present day antitheistic criticism of the theistic doctrine based on evidences of what has been called "dis-teleology" is essentially similar to the Jaina contention that the things of the universe are so very different from the man-made things that it is unreasonable to suppose the creator of those to be an intelligent being.
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