Article May 13, 1972 Issue

Individuality and Identity

L. IVIMY GWALTER

Individuality is a cherished fact of man's being. Then how important that we should understand it aright!

According to popular belief the world consists of many persons —billions of them—each a little finite entity out for himself, declaring, "I am an individual. I'll fight for my rights." The success of one often leads to the deprivation of another, and presently there is strife between individuals, which grows into strife between nations, strife between races—strife, strife, strife. Isn't this misapprehension of individuality the basis of war? All the world's troubles—poverty, crime, unrespected rights, envy, hate, ingratitude—grow out of this misapprehension. Ignorance of man's actual relationship to God is the root of mankind's enslavement. The Science of Christianity alone reveals man's individuality and being.

We'll never understand individuality as long as we start with a little, finite me. In Science there can be but one starting point, namely God, the great I AM, the one Ego or infinite individuality which man reflects. Correct reasoning about individuality must be from this basis. The word "individual" in its original derivation means not divisible; hence, inseparable, incapable of being divided into parts. Individual man is not a part of God; he is the reflection or idea evidencing the very nature and action of God. Principle and its idea are not two. They are one. Mary Baker Eddy even uses a singular verb when she writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe."^{Science and Health, pp. 465, 466;}