Jainism

Jainism:

• Religion from India 
• Teaches liberation and bliss ( lives of harmlessness) 
• Concern of the welfare of well-beings in the universe 
• Animals, Plants and Human being contain living souls
• Each soul should be treated with respect and compassion 
• Strict vegetarians and live in such a way that they need limited world resources
• Strong belief in reincarnation ( continuing the cycle of birth and re-birth so the immortal soul lives forever)
• Eliminating all karma from the soul 
• Religion of self help
• No God or spiritual power 
• The Three Jewels ( Right belief, right knowledge, right conduct) - Jainism 
• Living a non violent life
• The Great 5 vows ( non attachment to possession, no lying , no stealing, sexual restraint) 
• Mahavira is the man that started Jainism 
• The sacred text of Jainism is called Agamas
• Divided into sectors ( Digambara and Svetambara) 
• No priest 
• Old religion 

JAIN:

• Believe that the universe has always and will always exist
• Compatable with modern science thinking 
• Loka is the framework of the universe 
• Worlds have heaven and hell 
• Believe in other beings ( angels/ devils) BUT NOT GOD 
• Time is reciprocal 

Text:

Some foolish men declare that Creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill-advise, and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was he before creation? If you say he was transcendent then, and needed no support, where is he now?

According to their beliefs they struggle to believe that there is a God therefore they question who created the universe and if it was God where is he now. Because God is ever so powerful and immortal they start to question his existence as the world is slowly suffering they need to know where is the powerful being to come help them in the time of difficulty. Everyone that believes in God are foolish, they want God to be a physical being. There is no starting point, this doesn't point to God or shy away from God's existence. God is understood as not a physical being, God is spiritual. The doctrine, science challenges this thinking before there has to be a starting point there is no way to prove or not prove that there is a God. If God created the world where was he before creation, God was always and will always be there. If at the core of all life there was spirit where was God before. Transcendent means that God is more than us and is out there somewhere, above and beyond he is close by and is in a another special dimension. God is all around and people feel God and some people have experiences which they think that God is with them. His spirit ( he isn't here in a physical form) but, God is around us. A Christian view point would think that God is all around us and have and is walking the earth.

*Transcendents is just one view of God, assuming that God is out there somewhere and being all around

Transcendents- above and beyond ( close by: God in own space and dimension) 
Immanence- the idea that God is all around us ( His loving and forgiving spirit is all around. Acts: In him we live and move and have our being)