Article February 26, 1966 Issue

"Heredity is not a law"

FRANK R. S. GIFFORD

"Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin theories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly ills will disappear," writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, on page 228 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

Humanity believes that parents transmit to their children undesirable traits of character, idiosyncrasies, and certain diseases, as well as good qualities and health. This belief is accepted because it is thought that mortals are creators and that creation is material. Christian Science teaches that God created all and that His creation is spiritual and good. The real man is the idea of God and expresses all His qualities. In Genesis we read (1:27), "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 178), "Heredity is not a law." And farther on she says, "In proportion to our understanding of Christian Science, we are freed from the belief of heredity, of mind in matter or animal magnetism; and we disarm sin of its imaginary power in proportion to our spiritual understanding of the status of immortal being."

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