Article January 28, 1967 Issue

Christian Science and Academic Studies

RUSSELL D. ROBINSON

When the naturalist Charles Darwin propounded his theory of evolution, most of the religious world considered him to be the archenemy of God, and the acceptance of his theory signified to religionists that one had turned away from God, the Bible, and all that was considered sacred. But in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "May not Darwin be right in thinking that apehood preceded mortal manhood?"^{Science and Health, p. 543:} And she adds on another page, "In its history of mortality, Darwin's theory of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than most theories."^{p. 547 :}

Mrs. Eddy did not condemn Darwin nor did she dismiss his theories. She considered them in terms of his assumptions and thought that they made sense in describing the history of mortality, although not describing spiritual manhood. Mrs. Eddy's attitude is the cue for Christian Scientists today in the study of the theories of psychology, modern biology, and other natural and social sciences. While studying these theories in terms of the assumptions on which they are based, Christian Scientists do not mistakenly believe that such theories describe spiritual man, made in the image of God, Spirit.

Today's theories about mortal man—in psychology, biology, and the social sciences—in many ways describe him more clearly than ever before. Some elements of modern psychology are approaching Mrs. Eddy's conclusions about the mortal, or carnal, mind, though nothing is said about the divine Mind, God. Modern physiology describes the mortal body in minute detail, though nothing is said of individual spiritual man's embodiment of divine ideas. Christian Scientists can find in modern sociology some points which parallel Mrs. Eddy's teaching about human society, though it leaves out her teaching of the spiritual compound idea, generic man.

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