Article July 21, 1917 Issue

The first mistake made by our critic is his classification of...

F. Elmo Robinson

Burns (Ore.) Times-Herald

The first mistake made by our critic is his classification of Christian Science as a mere human philosophy. Now Christian Science, as the name implies, is a Science rather than a philosophy, the Science of being, taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus nineteen hundred years ago. The gentleman takes exception to Mrs. Eddy's use of certain synonyms for God. These synonyms, namely, Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love, are either specifically used by the Scriptural writers or their use is warranted by the teachings of the Scriptures. These names for Deity, however, should not be confounded with the words which are descriptive merely of attributes of God, such as mercy, justice, goodness. It is true that Christian Science teaches that "no material things exists." Christian Science rejects the real existence of matter and material things on the basis of the allness of Spirit. Since God is Spirit, the only cause and creator, the entire universe must be, in its real nature, spiritual and not material. Christian Science teaches that Mind and its manifestation is the only real existence, and hence that a matter universe is an impossibility in Science.

Our critic presents an appeal for the acceptance of the testimony of the physical senses. He argues, "Our senses witness to us the substantial existence of our bodies and of the external world." He concludes, therefore, that a material universe and physical man are realities because the material senses bear witness to their existence. Now, to those same material senses the earth on which we live is flat, and the sun rises and sets; and to one looking down a railroad track the rails some distance away seem to meet; but to our enlightened understanding the earth is not flat, the sun does not rise and set, and the rails do not meet as the physical sense of sight declares. As a matter of fact, the seeming meeting of the rails is not a condition external to consciousness, but is an experience within consciousness due to the finiteness of the human sense of sight.

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Christian Science does not say that there is no sin, in the...
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