Article October 26, 1974 Issue

Evil's Name Isn't Joe

BETTY REISS

It is a common tendency, when something goes wrong, merely to fasten the blame on someone. Then we may say, "I knew Joe was headed for trouble" or "I blame his parents!" But this is little comfort or help to Joe, and nothing is really solved.

In the study of Christian Science one learns that evil is never the reality it would claim to be, nor is it a person. And our thinking concerning good and evil is important; the quality of our experience largely depends upon it.

In Christian Science evil is designated as error, the supposed absence of God, whose spiritual creation is already complete, perfect, and present. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent."^{Science and Health, p. 186;}