Article December 12, 1970 Issue

Why Mortal Mind Is Always Wrong

SCHUYLER HAMILTON, JR.

Mortal mind—any supposed intelligence apart from God—is always wrong. We must recognize this in order to protect ourselves against the subtle error of thinking that mortal mind produces once in a while a good thought, a good proposition, or a good suggestion.

In Christian Science we learn that one of the synonyms for God is Mind. Since God is good, this one infinite and immortal Mind is good, producing only good thoughts and ideas. "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: ... a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." Deut. 32:4; Since God is All, Mind is complete, embracing all good thoughts and ideas—all, without exception. Therefore mortal mind has nothing to work with but falsity and wrong beliefs. This explains what Christ Jesus meant when he said of the devil, which Christian Science calls mortal mind, "He is a liar, and the father of it." John 8:44; Mortal mind must therefore begin with a lie it alone could father, and then try to impose it upon us, upon our human consciousness.

To impose, mortal mind would need power. But since God is omnipotent, good alone has all real power. There is no other power available, and mortal mind is reduced to claiming power without having one bit of it. We can see, then, that even the most vehement false claim to power is still no power at all but merely a claim, a pretension. There never was, is, or will be a moment when anything unlike God has real power. We need only to admit this fact to use it in abolishing error's pretensions. All mortal mind is looking for is to be believed, confirmed, or sustained in its claim to power by the human consciousness to which it presents itself. In one of Mrs. Eddy's letters, quoted in Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy by Irving C. Tomlinson, we read, "Error comes to you for life, and you give it all the life it has." Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, p. 85; But this "life it has," is but another temporary illusion, for God is Life and all that is real; therefore no real life is available to mortal mind.

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