Did God create Man?

Jainism does not believe in the idea of souls as creations of God. Rather souls are eternal and that the Karma regulates the good and bad in one’s life. In the first part, we provided logic against the view that God created the universe. In this part, we provide logic against the view that “God created the man and that he is responsible for his fate”.

Did God create Man?

Theories on Nature of souls created by God

There are 6 different belief systems about the nature of the souls when God created them. They are as follows:

1. That God created pure souls free from any merit(punya) or sins(paap)
2. That God created souls endowed with merit
3. That God created souls impregnated with sins
4. That God created souls mixed with virtue and sin together
5. That God created souls which had more sins and less virtue
6. That God created souls which had more virtue and less sins

The First Position

If you maintain the first position that God created pure souls, then

• All the preaching of the various scriptures are futile because the souls are already pure and there is nothing more to do.
• The author of these scriptures are also unwise as it was useless to compose these scriptures for the guidance of the souls which were already pure. No sensible man washes clean cloth. This shows that if the scriptures were put together for the guidance of pure souls, the author thereof was not a wise man.

Q. — God created all the souls pure, but they, out of their own will, did good or bad actions. How is God to be blamed for this?

A — When the Ishvara did not endow the souls with a power to do good or evil actions, how have they then come into possession of that power?

Q. — God has created all powers in the souls but He does not prompt them to do evil to which they are led of their own accord. Suppose a man gives his dear child a toy to play with but the child injures his eye with it, are the parents to blame for it? Similarly God has given hands, feet, and other organs of actions to beings only for the performance of virtuous actions. If one did evil of his own accord; is God to blame for it?

A. — The example of a child which you have given is not correct because the parents of the child do not know that the toy they have given will be so used by him to injure his own eyes. If the parents knew this they would never give the toy to the child. If they give it knowingly, they are not his parents but his enemies.

Similarly according to your example, if God is to be regarded as our parent and we are all his children. And question is whether He knew that the man who has been given hands, feet, mind, and other senses, would use them so as to commit sins leading him to hell:

• If He did not know this, He is not perfect and omniscient. Hence not worthy of being God.
• But If He knew this, the charge of His being our enemy is brought against Him. Otherwise He would not have created such men.

What was His objective in getting so many men doing things which would lead them to hell?

• God is proved to be unjust in as much as He has supplied man wherewithal to do sin, and then punishing him for doing so.
• And God commits great sin in slaying the children whom he himself created. If you say that he slays only to destroy evil beings, why did he create such beings in the first place?

If we believe in the first proposition, God is thus proved to be unjust, cruel and unwise. Since it would not be advisable to bring so many charges- against Him, it would be better to accept that God did not create sinless souls. Hence the first proposition does not seem reasonable.

Second Proposition

If you believe in the Second proposition, you say that God has created only virtuous souls, then the objections are:

1. Why are men born blind, lame, cripple, deaf, deformed, and also in low and poverty stricken families? Certainly the after-effects of virtue do not make men miserable and starving for life and to be drudging for mouthfuls of food.
2. Besides, how could God make the souls virtuous without their having done good deeds before. If He made them virtuous without their previous deeds, He might as well send them to heaven or give them salvation without their doing any virtuous deeds.
3. When it was so easy to send them to heaven, why did God create the difficulty of men undergoing such ordeals in following scriptural injunctions obediently: — keeping fasts, abandonment of greed, passion and animosity, enrolment in the order of mendicants to follow the virtues of compassion, self control, charity, truthfulness, abstinence from theft and the company of women. Would it not show that God is neither discreet nor wise?

Third Proposition

If you believe in the third proposition, you say that God created the souls encrusted with sin, then the following problems arise:

1. Does it not show that the souls were charged with sins without having done them? When God Himself has ruined us, to whom else are we to represent our grievances that we have been charged with sins by God without our having committed them and soliciting his aid in keeping God from doing so. The unjust God who charges us with sins without our committing them ought never to be adored.
2. If God had created all the souls encrusted with sin, a birth in the family of kings, ministers, order to attain heaven and salvation; — military commanders, and millionares, healthy body excellent, form and person, respect at home, and fame abroad, enjoyment of all the five senses would be impossible.

Therefore God has not created sinful men and this proposition does not make sense.

Fourth Proposition

If you say that the souls were created half sinful and half virtuous, the statement is equally preposterous because all souls are not seen half happy and half miserable in the world.

Fifth Proposition

This position too is not tenable as it is not found that the majority of beings are happy and the minority are miserable. On the other hand, the majority is found to be in misery and the minority in happiness.

Sixth Proposition

This position too is not tenable as God seems biased in making selected people happy and most others miserable.

Other Assertions

Q. — God has created the universe with the object that the souls may do virtuous deeds and attain unending happiness. He created the universe to do good to others.

If it is doing good to others to make them do good deeds and attain happiness, what act of goodness is His towards those who have gone to the hell after committing sins? If you say, God would take them out of the hell and send them to heaven, why did He allow them to go to hell first?

Q. — It is God who makes men do virtuous or sinful deeds. They cannot do anything of themselves. Just as a puppet dancer makes puppets dance as he likes, so does God make people do what He wills.

If it is not in the power of souls to do anything, they should not be responsible for good or bad results. If a master orders his servant to do anything and the servant does it in obedience to his order and the result turns out to be bad, would the master punish the servant for it? Similarly if men do good or bad actions in obedience to God’s orders they cannot be held responsible for their results. When men have not done good or bad actions, they cannot go to heaven or hell nor can they attain any of the four conditions of life such as

(1) heaven (2) hell (3) human life and (4) animal, mineral and vegetable life.

When there are no such four conditions of life there is no universe. There is no requirement for scriptures such as the Vedas, Puranas, Quran, Bible etc. When there are no scriptures, there are no religious teachers. When there are no religious teachers, there is no God. When there is no God there is universal void. How can this absurdity be dealt with?

Q. — This universe is like the show of a juggler and God acts like a juggler. By the creation of this universe God simply amuses Himself by His tricks. There are no such things as heaven, hell, virtue and sin.

If God has created the world simply for His amusement, the results ought to be trivial like the effects of a juggler’s performance. But in this world we see grave problems. There are men who are sick, leprous, grief stricken, penniless, infirm and extremely wretched wallowing in the depths of squalor and misery. The very sight of these persons evokes our compassion and excites our horripilation. Does not the sight of these miserable move creatures God with pity? If God is not moved with pity, He cannot be God. The performer of a trick is like a foolish child full of passion and animosity. If He is affected by passion and hatred He is full of all defects. When He is full of all defects He cannot be God. He can only be a worldly man. He who has passion and hatred cannot be omniscient and He who is not omniscient can never be called God.

Q. — God rewards or punishes men according to their actions therefore He is not to blame. As one soweth so does one reap.

If you say that whatever condition the living beings have in this life, are the results of their deeds in the previous life and what they were in the previous life, was the result of their actions in the one preceding it. In this way the chain goes back ad-infinitum. This argument proves that the world is beginningless and that God is not its creator.

Source

[1] Chicago Prashnottari by Pujya Acharya Shri VijayAnand Suriji M.S.

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