Article April 19, 1969 Issue

Above Chance

SIR GEORGE E. J. MAHON

Paul, walking down the streets of Athens, saw altars with many and various inscriptions. One altar, inscribed TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, was the basis of his wonderful address contained in Acts 17:22-31. Doubtless another of the altars he saw was inscribed TO TYCHE, the goddess of chance, for the ancient Greeks paid so much attention to chance that to them it seemed a deity. The ancient Romans did much the same and venerated their goddess Fortuna, whose charming little temple still stands, to the delight of every visitor to present-day Rome.

How crude and how absurd the ancient pagans were to worship chance! This is one's first reaction. But has this practice been so utterly uprooted? People still seek enjoyment in games of chance and hope to improve their financial position by speculating on the stock exchange. We use such phrases as "What good luck!" We say things happen "by accident," and many countries are plagued with traffic and other accidents. Certain disasters are often described in insurance policies as "acts of God," though it would be difficult to find a more inaccurate definition! As these various instances show, many of us still believe more or less that our circumstances and happiness can be affected by some supernatural, irrational power called chance.

But what are the facts? Christian Science reveals them. It shows that there is only one divine, immutable law or power and that any other supposed law is invalid and spurious. These facts are set forth in simple, straightforward terms in the Bible: "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else."^{Isa. 45:18;} And in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes: "There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause."^{Science and Health, p. 207;}