Editorial October 29, 1960 Issue

Driving Error Out of Selfhood

Helen Wood Bauman

The Bible describes the devil, or evil, as "Satan, which deceiveth the whole world" and as "having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Rev. 12:9, 12). Through Christian Science we learn that evil's primary deception is self-deception, its claim to an ego or identity which is deceived by its own delusive beliefs.

Mary Baker Eddy gives this explanation in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 363): "The 'ego' that claims selfhood in error, and passes from molecule and monkey up to man, is no ego, but is simply the supposition that the absence of good is mind and makes men, —when its greatest flatterer, identification, is piqued by Him who compensateth vanity with nothingness, dust with dust!"

Who would wish to flatter error by giving it identity? Christian Science defines evil as a blind force, wicked because nonintelligent, directionless because without goodness. Claiming to attach itself to individuals, this force would substitute its qualities for those of God's likeness, the real man, and thus present an evil ego.

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