Article July 10, 1995 Issue

Defeating a "killer virus"

Rosalie E. Dunbar

One of the ironies of modern times is that while residents of Zaire in Africa were struggling with the fear and horror of a deadly virus, people in other places could suffer vicariously by reading The Hot Zone or viewing films like Outbreak. Both newspaper and fictional accounts of the sickness make the words of Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health seem prophetic. Over a century ago, she wrote: "The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and diseases among the human family. It does this by giving names to diseases and by printing long descriptions which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought" (pp. 196–197).

The world's view of a "killer virus," with all its awfulness and incurability, is based on the belief that man is essentially a material organism separate from God and that he interacts—for good or ill—with other matter-based organisms, large and small. Within this context, the press reports to which Mrs. Eddy refers do make disease seem to be an inescapable reality. But in her reference to disease, she writes of "images" rather than "realities" of disease.

These images are the product of the mortal, or carnal, mind. In other words, they're based on the belief that life and intelligence are material rather than spiritual. Images of disease could never have their source in God, who is the only true Mind. This shows us the point where Christian Scientists and all others who love God can join forces to wipe out such sicknesses.

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