Men in their ignorance used to think they were the center of a fairly small universe. Does knowing that you are just a speck on a remote planet in the corner of one gigantic galaxy among billions make you feel insignificant?

No, one can feel both humble and important at the same time. The earth and universe are so wonderfully complex and beautiful, and mankind is a grand part of this!

Some scientists say the universe is infinite, some say finite. What do you say?

To the physical scientist, space is something associated with matter. Without atoms, molecules, dust, stars, and galaxies in space, there wouldn't be any space. So the scientist has to ask, "Does matter extend forever?" Some theories say Yes, some No. One current theory is that at one time all matter and energy in the universe was squeezed down into a very dense, compact ball. It exploded, throwing matter into space, creating what is referred to as the expanding universe, which is already billions and billions of light years in extent. If the amount of energy involved is sufficiently great, the expansion could go on forever, making the universe infinite. But if the energy is too limited, expansion will go only so far. Then matter will begin to fall back on itself to form another compact ball, and there will be another explosion and matter will go back out and collapse again, and so on. Given the scarcity of observed facts, many theories are possible. But it is important to recognize that the physical sciences deal with a limited, human concept of the infinite spiritual universe, which has always existed. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The rotations and revolutions of the universe of Mind go on eternally." ¹

What has Christian Science meant to you personally?

It has been a source of support, discernment, insight, guidance, and understanding to everything I undertake. It has been my link to what I regard as the reality of being in an era when it's very difficult to perceive what reality is. It has been a source of order in thought in a period when there's a lot of confusion and concern. It has been the pathway to follow in a day and age when it's hard to find a path.

You enjoy physical science, give your best to it, but never give it ultimate authority over your life. A physical scientist who privately sees Spirit as the only reality! Has this given you any uncomfortable moments?

That is a matter one has to wrestle with. But my career and my religion do coincide in the following sense: Christian Science is a Science of inspiration and unfoldment. And physical science is also a science of inspiration and unfoldment. It is humanity's best effort to understand life and reality at the present time. I feel my participation in it is helping to spur on inspiration, development of insight, and increased understanding. I have a role to play in it, even though I know that there is another, better, more direct, interpretation of the universe.

Was there a point in your life when physics became subservient to metaphysics?

Yes. All during my youth I had been bothered with what might be called rheumatism. Whenever I would exercise too much, I'd be laid low with terrible pain. But I enjoyed sports and played tennis and went swimming and hiking. In college I went out for rowing. One day I came in from rowing feeling terrible. I couldn't sit, stand, or lie down. I worked on this in Christian Science, and about three in the morning I finally realized that although I'd been working conscientiously, I'd really been thinking, "There is no pain like this pain I'm struggling with." That negated the truth. I thought, "Really, this kind of prayer won't heal. All that's going on here is that mortal mind, matter, physics, is talking to you and you're listening. Well, I just can't be made to listen." And just like that, all the pain was gone for good.

A few centuries ago, physical science began shaking the Christian's blind faith in God. Today, Christian Science proves able to shake a physical scientist's blind faith in matter.

Now, when people argue about physical reality, I go back to this healing experience, and I know where reality lies.

In physical science, you make observations, build up a body of data, analyze it, formulate theories in an attempt to explain what you've seen. Now, "explain" doesn't mean answering the question why things were made or how they came into being—Is there a God or isn't there? Physics sets up a very rigid set of ground rules that excludes at the beginning such questions of metaphysics. But many scientists, who in their professional lives follow those rules of the scientific method, lean back after they're through for the day, and speculate, "What is the meaning of all this?" Metaphysics has always asked Why? How? What is the overall scheme of things? And many scientists feel this stimulus of metaphysics at times.

But there must be some religiously oriented physical scientists like Einstein...

There are, but many are not.

Have you ever had metaphysical discussions with physical scientists?

Yes. On questions such as: What is the source of the universe? How did it come into being? Who created it? Is there a Mind, an all-encompassing intelligence?

If you were to play the game entirely within the rules of physical science, nothing is accepted that cannot be proven by experiment. Your body of scientific knowledge is built up by observation. This is a close analogy to what Mrs. Eddy said must be our way of establishing Christian Science—through demonstration. You don't know anything solely by theoretical reasoning. You prove it by demonstration. Now, if you look at what physical science is saying about what men are—animals made up of atoms, molecules, cells —that means that Christian healing, metaphysical healing, is impossible.

Spiritual healing defies the law of the conservation of mass and energy?

Yes. Now the power of this is that if you have just one case of such a healing, that's enough to disprove all the rest of that law, you see. And we have more than one. We have thousands and thousands. Here, using the physical scientists' own ground rules, is a very powerful argument that reality is not what they say it is; reality is something else.

That's astonishing. But does there have to be hostility between the Christian Church and physical scientists?

If matter is real and the physical sciences are the explanation of reality, then the physical sciences are the only real basis of all activity and thought and there is nothing beyond them. But if Mind, Spirit, is real, and matter is not, then there is a necessity to recognize this and understand what matter is and what substance is. It seems pretty clear that in the stage of consciousness in which this fact is being dimly perceived, but not by any means completely understood, there will be confusion, maybe hostility. But for those who are beginning to discern Truth, such hostility is not necessary. The task for them is simply to replace the illusion with the correct picture. They can see the physical sciences as an effort to reach out to Truth, and they can leaven this effort with the understanding of what reality truly is. Mrs. Eddy clearly welcomes scientific inquiry, invention, and intellectual activity.

The true creation of the universe as the expression of Mind, not through matter, is set forth in the first chapter of Genesis. In the confusion introduced by those material processes described in the second chapter and following, lie the seeds of the controversy you're talking about. As long as there is an issue between these two views, there will be fundamental and hard questions to be wrestled with.

Jesus prayed, "Not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." ²

Instead of ignoring what the physical sciences are doing, Christian Scientists should be interested in them, and bring their own insights to bear on them. They should work, interact, and interface with the physical scientist and not go off in a corner.