Editorial November 13, 1971 Issue

A Sign of Progress

Carl J. Welz

It is the policy of this magazine to be modest in its claims that the world is coming to see the light of Christian Science. Generally speaking, we are aware of a trend in human thinking, not toward spirituality, but toward a sort of universal materialism. This trend has many names, but they all add up to the belief that fundamentals are material, that everything began with and in matter, and that whatever exists—even if it appears to be a mental phenomenon—can be controlled eventually by material processes.

But we still regard this as waves on the surface of the ocean. Waves are blown by the wind, but they do not necessarily indicate the direction of the currents. Occasionally evidence comes to light that shows an underlying current of human thought that honestly seeks Truth. And the result of this honest seeking indicates progress toward a recognition of spiritual facts.

Writing in American Psychologist, A. H. Maslow says, "If one pursues any 'physical' illness far enough ... one will find inevitably intrapsychic, intrapersonal, and social variables that are also involved as determinants. This definitely is not to etherealize tuberculosis or broken bones. It simply means that in the study of tuberculosis one finds that poverty is also a factor."^{"Toward a Humanistic Biology," American Psychologist, Vol. 24 (August, 1969), pp. 733, 734;} And he cites a study by Dunbar, done in 1943, which found psychological factors involved in bone fracture cases.