Indian Logic and Atomism: An Exposition of the Nyaya and Vaiceshika Systems c19.s2.17

c19.s2.17

The obvious objections to the proofs of the existence of God were urged by rival schools.⁴ The assumption that the universe is a product can be assailed; we can adduce only individual cases of products; to assert that the whole of which they are parts must be a product is a paralogism. Nor indeed can we prove that every thing is produced, even among ordinary things, for our sphere of knowledge is severely limited. Again the atoms, ether, time and space, souls and minds are admittedly eternal and uncreated; therefore the argument that the universe must have a creator is inconsistent and illogical. Nor indeed is it legitimate to call the world a product and argue thence to the cause, unless the cause can be proved independently. Moreover, God as possessing will must have desire and pleasure and pain, and so is no more than glorified man. In truth it is plain that a creator who is only powerful to create and destroy at intervals in strict accordance with merit and demerit and who exercises no influence at all on the fates of mankind is a strange anomaly.