Editorial March 4, 1967 Issue

Symptoms and Law

Carl J. Welz

According to materialistic theories man is a chemical and biological being. His sensations, conditions, and even his thought processes are supposed to begin with chemical and biological action. In line with this theory we say that a headache can cause one to have an outburst of temper or a condition of the nerves can cause one to be impatient or unkind toward others.

Intelligence, talents, and even dispositional traits theoretically stem from a process in which the characteristics of one's parents are thrown into a highly complex biological wheel of chance. Inherited individual differences are the result. Therefore, children of the same parents may have some similar characteristics but may also differ markedly from each other.

The Christian Science view of man begins with Spirit, God. All action, all substance, all the conditions of man, exist in and of God and are reflected by man. God is Spirit, divine Principle, the creator of all. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Deity was satisfied with His work. How could He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self-containment and immortal wisdom?"^{Science and Health, p. 519;} Christian Science regards the materialistic theory as false because that theory completely ignores the divine Principle, God, and spiritual creation.