When learning about religions and philosophies, I find that origins or backgrounds are essential in interpreting the context and content of a religion. For Jainism, it was vital to learn that it is substantially older than a more well-known and contemporary Sikhism. Though both have close ties with Hinduism, Sihkism’s origins date back to only about 500 years ago while Jainism has a history of nearly 2500 years (Molloy 191). Sikhism exhibits a more militaristic approach to monotheism despite being more modern. As such, the Jainist belief that no Creator exists and that the universe is simply guided by natural forces becomes especially interesting as it rejects a very traditional integration of deities into theology.
Following this, it is also interesting to me to observe in what ways a religion interacts with the world through its perspective. As mentioned above, Jainism rejects the belief in a Creator or God. This belief is held up by several philosophical questions that are even asked in atheistic circles. These include contradictions in typical monotheistic religions such as God being both perfect and creating an imperfect world or God loving all life but still allowing suffering. Jainism even poses a logical fallacy, which suggests that if everything in the universe had to be created, would God not also need to be created? This worldview is surprisingly modern and potentially controversial for its time.
Ethics is another vital component of any philosophy or belief system. Jainism establishes five distinct principles of ethics which are Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truth), Astheya (non-stealing), Brahmacharya (chastity), and Aparigraha (non-possession). I am especially interested in Ahimsa which is the core of Jainist ethics. This is because I believe that many religions excuse violence due to their beliefs, which is inherently immoral to my values. Jainism proposes that non-violence is a priority and therefore inexcusable.