Article September 20, 1924 Issue

Our critic has not only presumed to speak without a...

Charles E. Heitman,—New York, N. Y.

Dennik

Our critic has not only presumed to speak without a proper knowledge of the fundamentals of Christian Science; but evidently for no better reason than the fact that they fail to square with his own religious views, he would have us believe that they are unscientific and conflict with the Scriptural teachings. He would have been somewhat more correct had he said that the teachings of this religion conflict with his concept of the Scriptures.

In explaining her use of the word "Science" in connection with her religious teachings, Mrs. Eddy has said in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 341), "Sneers at the application of the word Science to Christianity cannot prevent that from being scientific which is based on divine Principle, demonstrated according to divine given rule, and subjected to proof." Confirmatory of this statement we are told in an editorial appearing in Christian Work that a distinguished authority on physical science, Professor Haldane of Oxford University, now maintains that God is the ultimate and only reality. Professor Haldane further declares, in an article appearing in the Hibbert Journal, that we must rid ourselves of the idea so characteristic of the present that the physical interpretation corresponds with reality itself and is more than a preliminary and quite inadequate representation of it. Continuing, he says, "I think the future generations will look back with the same wonder on the popular materialism of the present time as we look back on the old popular belief in astrology and witchcraft or the ancient Greek conception of the physical world." "The materialistic theory," he adds, "has all of the distorting effects of gross forms of superstition." Thus we find our critic in open disagreement with one of the leading physicists of the world, whose theories regarding the unreality of matter and the deceptive testimony of the material senses agree in important particulars with the teachings of Christian Science.

I may also say that while Christian Science denies the reality of sin, sickness, and death as a part of God's spiritual universe, it by no means fails, as our critic implies, to recognize them as phases of human experience. Christian Science holds, however, that since these discordant experiences are primarily due to wrong thinking, they can be corrected and eventually overcome only through spiritual, right thinking based upon the truth concerning God and man's relation to Him. The understanding and application of this truth in a practical fashion to our everyday problems gradually free us from all untoward conditions, and so bring to pass the Master's prophecy, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

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