Article June 16, 1917 Issue

A Distinction

CHARLES F. HACKETT

Christian Science makes a distinction between evil and the knowledge of evil which is of much importance in the solving of human problems. In the second chapter of Genesis it was not a tree of good and evil whose fruit was forbidden, but "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." In commenting on the text just quoted Mrs. Eddy says, "It was not against evil, but against knowing evil, that God forewarned" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 367).

The reason for making this distinction becomes clear in the light of the teaching of Christian Science, which shows that God, good, is All-in-all, having all power, presence, and knowledge; whence it necessarily follows that evil is without entity or existence, and is therefore nothing. The only way to destroy evil is on this basis,—the basis of its nothingness. To admit that evil is unreal or false is to admit all there is of it. Because evil seems to be real and present in human experience, it is a great help to know that it is false and unreal; but this alone does not destroy it. Because God, good, is All, however, and evil is nothing, it is the so-called knowledge of evil, or the belief in evil, which must be destroyed. This is not a distinction without a difference, for it is one of the essential differences between Christian Science and other systems of healing and reform. It might even be said that it marks the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful effort to demonstrate the truth.

Having accepted the scientific fact of the allness and all-inclusiveness of God, good, and the consequent nothingness of evil, how is the seeming presence of evil in human thought to be destroyed? In other words, how are we to stop knowing evil, when it seems so interwoven with good in our thought processes and is made so apparent through the five bodily senses? Through the study of the Science of being—the earnest and prayerful effort to know the true nature of God and man—spiritual sense is quickened, and spiritual ideas, which are in the nature of revelations, begin to unfold. These revelations, separating as they do good from evil in human thought, lead to affirmations and denials with respect to particular conditions, in the effort to hold fast that which is good and to reject that which is false. It needs to be clearly seen that these affirmations and denials are necessary only because of our imperfect knowledge, and that they are needed to bring thought into harmony with Truth.

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