Editorial December 21, 1963 Issue

The Denial of Error

Helen Wood Bauman

The denial of error is essential in the healing method of Christian Science. And the basic claim of error, or mortal mind, the claim that needs the most thorough and emphatic denial, is pantheism—the belief that life and intelligence arise from and depend upon matter. Until this belief, which is so deeply embedded in human thought, is understood as unreal, as sheer delusion, the healing of sickness and sin is likely to be protracted or unfinished.

Christ Jesus was virtually denying pantheism when he said (John 12:25), "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." In every healing he accomplished, the Master was proving the falsity of material life, or life in matter, and demonstrating the truth that man lives and has his full being in Spirit.

Mary Baker Eddy denied again and again the belief of pantheism. In fact, she made the first sentence in the vastly important "scientific statement of being" such a denial. This statement is found on page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and the beginning sentence reads, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter."

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