Article March 2, 1968 Issue

Toward a Universal Perspective

LARRY HELLER

The writer occasionally gains a calm perspective on earthly passions by picturing himself serenely atop the moon in sweet spatial silence. He sees himself observing from a safe distance the wars and rumors of wars on earth, that rather small, pear-shaped planet moving in order among the others. The writer's picture teaches a lesson, as far as it goes, to shrivel a massive mortal ego. But it does not stop a single war or rumor of one, nor heal a single hurt.

Christian Science teaches that mankind can't physically run away and hide from evil, the absence of good. Rocketing to the moon for respite or to a planet not yet within range of earth's increasingly powerful telescopes would not leave evil behind in a cloud of space dust. Is there any escape from evil? Yes, indeed, but the escape does not involve moving one inch from where one is right now. There will be many reasons for us to rocket to far planets, but to escape from evil involves spiritual understanding, not physical movement.

Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health: "Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense."^{Science and Health, p. 71;} This emphatic statement should stop us in our tracks and turn our thought toward new and healthier vistas. We can attain understanding just as well on earth as on the moon or on a distant planet. Evil has only one realm for its machinations. That is the pseudorealm of a false sense of Mind—about as non-existent a realm as one can imagine. Christian Science destroys evil in thought, and then evil ceases to exist anywhere.