Editorial March 14, 1964 Issue

No Violence in the Land

Helen Wood Bauman

God's displeasure with violence was recorded many centuries ago when the author of Genesis described the days of Noah. "The earth also was corrupt before God," we read, "and the earth was filled with violence. ... And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth" (6:11–13). Here human motives are attributed to God according to the sense of Deity men in that age entertained.

Today it is understood through Christian Science that evil destroys itself and that what appears to be God's punishing of it is the effect of His giving error no support whatever. Like light, which knows no darkness, God is unconscious of His opposite, evil. This makes all evil supposititious, according to scientific Christianity, and evil must fall by its own destructive nature. Only good possesses God's blessing and support.

If God were conscious of violence, He would be responsible for it, since nothing can have actual existence outside the divine consciousness. These truths must be understood by mankind; and when they are grasped in all their implications, people will no longer be the dupes of violence but will refuse to let even the least evidence of malicious thinking enter their minds. Hate campaigns will be outmoded when they can find no adherents.

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