Article January 21, 1980 Issue

Confronting World problems with spiritual understanding

CHARLOTTE SAIKOWSKI

Two divergent pitfalls can confront the Christian Scientist trying to deal with mankind's threatening problems. One might be called theological glibness, the casual dismissal of disturbing phenomena with the thought: "Oh, that's not real—it's nothing, because God didn't create evil. So why worry?"

The other reaction might be dubbed honest bewilderment, a feeling of being overwhelmed by the onrush of adversity and disaster. "The problems are too big and too complex," such thinking goes. "I don't understand them, so I'll just do what I can with my own life and hope for the best."

The reader no doubt sees through the fallacy of both responses. To take the first, it is true that Christian Science teaches the allness of God, good, and the consequent unreality of evil. Any problem, therefore— whether it takes the form of sickness, personal animosity, national oppression, ethnic tension, political domination, violence, or natural disaster—can always be reduced in thought to its inherent nothingness and powerlessness. This indeed is the infallible scientific method for destroying evil. Mary Baker Eddy discovered it and set it forth in the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Every healing includes a discernment of the suppositional nature of error.

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