Article October 18, 1969 Issue

Man Is Not Double-minded

ARTHUR F. CURRAN

It is not a compliment to speak of someone as double-minded. Doublc-mindedness implies a lack of stability, and most people would resent the implication. Yet how often individuals argue with themselves as if they have two minds, each having its own opinions and desires! Fear and confidence, weakness and strength, selfishness and generosity, seem to battle, producing a state of indecision. But the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures given in Christian Science helps us correct this seeming conflict.

In the first chapter of the Bible, the record of spiritual creation, the word "good" is many times used to describe the nature of the results achieved. This chapter concludes with the statement that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." ^{Gen. 1:31} Clearly, the man created by God can be conscious of nothing but good.

But the next chapter relates an allegory. A mist went up from the earth and there seemed to be a second creation of dust in which Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eating of this tree of double-mindedness is followed by dire results, now as then. Mrs. Eddy writes, "All suffering is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil; of adherence to the 'doubleminded' senses, to some belief, fear, theory, or bad deed, based on physical material law, so-called as opposed to good,— all of which is corrected alone by Science, divine Principle, and its spiritual laws." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 198}