Article April 3, 1926 Issue

Cutting the Gordian Knot

ROY W. VAN LIEW

A classic myth tells the story of the tying of an intricate knot by Gordius. This knot became known as the Gordian knot; and it was declared by an oracle that whoever untied it would become master of Asia. Alexander the Great essayed the task. Baffled by its complications he drew his sword and severed the knot at one blow, thereby averting the belief of ill omen attaching to failure to untie it.

The presentments of mortal existence and the conclusions deduced from its premises claim to constitute a veritable Gordian knot—complicated, confusing, and impossible of solution by material methods. Here, there, everywhere, we see men seeking happiness in matter, striving to untangle the knots of sense-evidence, pursuing the ever dissolving pictures of human prestige, possession, and pleasure. We feel that there must be a solution to our problems, that there is satisfaction somewhere. We try to dispose of our difficulties, however, by following after theoretical deductions from the premise of the reality of matter, instead of detecting the falsity of this assumption.

On page 277 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says: "Matter is an error of statement. This error in the premise leads to errors in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters. Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immortal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous."

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