Editorial March 27, 1965 Issue

Man's Spiritual Existence

Helen Wood Bauman

As long as people depend only upon the physical senses for an understanding of man's existence they will remain confused, and their lives will lack direction. For these senses cannot tell us the whole of human life, with its unseen forces of justice and mercy, let alone the perfect existence of man in divine Science as God's spiritual likeness.

Mary Baker Eddy describes the confusion of mortals in this passage from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 371): "By those uninstructed in Christian Science, nothing is really understood of material existence. Mortals are believed to be here without their consent and to be removed as involuntarily, not knowing why nor when."

This statement describes somewhat the quandary of the existentialist, who feels that he has been brought into a world he was not responsible for, a world without a divine plan and hostile to humanity. Hence he believes he must make his own plan, live his own life as an individual—alone. He will be what he makes himself—what he chooses to be—but his choice will determine the fate of mankind. Hence his deep concern for human conditions.

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