Editorial May 11, 1918 Issue

Science versus Superstition

Annie M. Knott

Through an entirely false concept of the teachings of Christian Science, a good many people have thought of it as a form of superstition; but when they become in any degree acquainted with the Principle which underlies all of its teachings they see that they were entirely mistaken. A dictionary definition of superstition reads as follows: "An excessive reverence for, or fear of, that which is unknown or mysterious. An ignorant or irrational worship of the Supreme Deity; excessive exactness or rigor in religious opinions or practice." So far from Christian Science being in any wise connected with superstitious belief or practice, it really is the only teaching which reveals the error of all belief that bases superstition.

Here it should be said that superstition never fails to induce fear; while Christian Science, rightly understood and practiced, never fails to destroy it. On page 83 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says: "Between Christian Science and all forms of superstition a great gulf is fixed, as impassable as that between Dives and Lazarus." Taking up the belief in superstition at this point, we have the only direct teaching of Christ Jesus relative to the condition of those who have passed through the experience called death; and his words, as found in the parable referred to by Mrs. Eddy, actually annihilate the widely prevailing belief that there can be or should be any communication between those who have passed on and those who are on this plane of experience.

In this parable which is given in the sixteenth chapter of Luke we find that the rich man who had passed on and who declared he was in torment, evidently believed that he could send a communication through Lazarus to his brothers who were in the world. It is good to find here a hint that human affection had survived death and the grave, and it was surely the dawning of spiritual consciousness which led him to pray for their salvation; but the lesson which came to him showed that through no form of superstition could this salvation come. We read that Abraham directed the man's thought to Moses and the prophets, or, as the student of Christian Science would say, to the divine Principle that had inspired their teachings. Because, however, the rich man had not understood this divine Principle, he had failed to find the needed lessons, and thought that if one from the dead could take a message to his brothers they would repent; but though his plea was rejected, the essential truth taught by Moses and the prophets, and demonstrated by Christ Jesus, remained to light the way to full salvation from sin, sickness, and death.

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