For Jains, God is not someone who created the world. By their definition God is any soul who has been liberated from the cycle of birth and death. So it is a spiritual religion, but they also believe in God even though their definition of God is very different from Christians, Hindus or Muslims.
The problem here is that many Western scholars, like Durkheim, classifed this religion as atheist. How is this possible when they believe in God?
2007-06-04 01:07:42 · 9 answers · asked by S 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
brkshandilya: I was not talking about Buddhism at all. Jains follow the path of Jinas. The Jinas are not worshipped, and should not be worshipped like God, but I have often seen books refer to them as 'Lord".
2007-06-04 01:25:38 · update #1
Atheists don't generally believe in souls, either. I would classify Jains as theists, myself. Gods are really vaguely defined, but I would include any supernatural sentient being in that definition.
2007-06-04 01:13:18 · answer #1 · answered by nondescript 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Obviously people do not share a common definition of the word god. For many people the word god refers only to a creator god. Using that definition Jains are atheists.
2007-06-04 08:34:25 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
This is all about terminology....... labeling, and the reality
of different cultures. What we believe in is our reality thus
the characteristics of the word God can be different and change from one reality to another as the same word has a
different meaning. Thus an atheist has different classification
in different cultures and realities.
Is it not time to realize that those who wish to rule over humanity keep us at odds with our own species through this type of separateness thinking of belief systems.
Time to realize we are all One from the same source and the rest is simply Belief Systems that keep us less that what we could be and truly are by accepting others as being from the same Oneness.
2007-06-04 08:43:01 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is simple
Believe in a god - Theist
Believe in no god - Atheist
That is the definition of the words. You can have all kinds of beliefs as an atheist. But as soon as you believe in any god you are (by definition) not an atheist.
2007-06-04 08:18:32 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
according to the answers on here an Atheist doesnt believe in God
2007-06-04 08:13:43 · answer #5 · answered by loveChrist 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wrongly worded question.An atheist does not believe in a God,creator or not.Buddhism as a religion also does not mention God as such.
2007-06-04 08:21:21 · answer #6 · answered by brkshandilya 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Mostly because they're confused. A true atheist has NO supernatural beliefs, which rules out following any sort of organized faith.
There are no gods, and no creators.
2007-06-04 08:14:07 · answer #7 · answered by link955 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Western scholars have a rather limited concept of what "god" could be.
2007-06-04 08:11:08 · answer #8 · answered by Cosmic I 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I do not believe in any God or souls or hell or Satan
2007-06-04 08:21:42 · answer #9 · answered by FallenAngel© 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋