The belief in heredity as the cause of a disease is based on the belief that matter is self-existent. This belief says that being is matter and nothing else. Through observation of matter, and through believing what they have seen, men have come to accept as real the concept that matter has force and intelligence to evolve itself and to organize itself into forms of life. In this belief the reproduction of individuals is entirely material and the characteristics of that which is reproduced naturally stem from its ancestors, immediate or remote.

Christian Science denies heredity as but one of the errors which come from believing in the reality of matter. Christian Science insists that the Principle of all that is real is God, Spirit. All forms of reality, including all individuality, are the creation of the divine Mind, and they appear not as material objects and organisms but as spiritual ideas.

In order to observe reality, then, one must understand that matter is false belief. It is not something real to be observed; it is the false creation of the carnal, or mortal, mind. Through animal magnetism, mortal mind influences mortals to believe matter and its laws to be real. What one sees, then, is mortal belief objectified and individualized.

In the case of heredity a child seems to inherit the characteristics of his parents. But in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, we read (p. 178), "In proportion to our understanding of Christian Science, we are freed from the belief of heredity, of mind in matter or animal magnetism."

Christ Jesus nullified all material law in his demonstrations of the power of divine Mind. He healed all manner of disease without regard for material cause. And he indicated that as long as one believes himself the product of material mortal mind, he will respond to the errors of that mind. But insofar as one understands himself to be the child of the divine Mind, he will express the qualities of that Mind.

The scientific facts concerning heredity come to light in the Master's conversation with those who disbelieved in him, as recorded in the eighth chapter of John, where we find these words: "I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.... Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.... He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.... If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God.... Before Abraham was, I am."

Christian Science strictly follows Jesus' teachings. It insists that the only thing that affects our health is the source of the thoughts we have. And it demonstrates that an understanding of their source, coupled with an earnest desire to put off as unreal all thoughts which do not come from divine Principle, gives us dominion over our thoughts, and this in turn enables us to demonstrate health as a changeless, eternal quality of Principle.

Mrs. Eddy writes on page 178 of Science and Health: "Heredity is not a law. The remote cause or belief of disease is not dangerous because of its priority and the connection of past mortal thoughts with present." And on page 337 of the same book she says: "According to divine Science, man is in a degree as perfect as the Mind that forms him. The truth of being makes man harmonious and immortal, while error is mortal and discordant."

The real man is God's image and likeness, the idea of Mind, or Principle. Man's qualities, therefore, are derived directly from Principle. They have no other source. Man is not the father of man. The creative Principle never enters man; so one man cannot reproduce another, nor can one individual transmit his qualities to another. All men are in reality God's spiritual offspring manifesting the qualities, the perfection, the health, the love, of the one perfect Father-Mother.

Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 467): "This is a leading point in the Science of Soul, that Principle is not in its idea. Spirit, Soul, is not confined in man, and is never in matter."

As we come to understand the truth that Principle, not matter, is primary and as we apply this truth to our every thought and act, we are able to heal disease and to overcome discords in human life. God is our Father, and we inherit from Him all that is real. Matter is not our origin, and we have the right and the duty to overthrow the belief that we are material.

Carl J. Welz