Article March 20, 1971 Issue

Evil, a Theory

RAYMOND F. KELLER

Many a speculation takes hold of the consciousness of mankind. Can the darkness of evil be or become total? Can sin take over human beings in complete bondage? Must fear develop into sickness and lead to death? Must the world itself finally be consumed in a holocaust? Fortunately for mankind, Christian Science, shows that the theory of overwhelming evil is just that—a theory, having no more reality than its believer chooses to give to it.

There is neither such a theory, nor such a believer in the first chapter of Genesis, which defines creation as wholly spiritual and good. In the second chapter we read, "There went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground."^{ Gen. 2:6;} What at first appears as a total presence of evil is only a material concept. From this cloud, or dream, comes Adam, who is supposed to act out the theory.

Since evil was mysterious and abstract, without life or intelligence, there was no mind from which material consciousness could be made. Any struggle, any seeming choice between good and evil, is a dream. We need to awake to the true consciousness of Christ, Truth. Jesus, who so well embodied the Christ that he was called Christ Jesus, knew what had to be done by himself and others. He said, "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." ^{ John 5:30;} He revealed the necessity of attaining a higher human sense, which could in turn yield to complete spirituality.