Article September 14, 1974 Issue

God's Allness Nullifies Evil

RICHARD CLAUDE HAW

Do we react with horror, dismay, disgust, or anger to the evil that seems so prevalent today? If so, we need to remember that Mrs. Eddy has revealed to us the nothingness of evil and given us the means of spiritual control with which to nothingize its false claims. Recognizing the astounding claims that evil in its various forms makes on human sense, she challenges us with the question: "But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?"^{Science and Health, p. 563;} To the extent that we react emotionally to the magnified claims of error, or the belief of a power apart from God, we are assuming its somethingness, and are, in consciousness, according it reality, power, or intelligence. This serves only to reinforce its claims rather than control and destroy them. We are justified, however, in rising in rebellion against evil, not as a reality, but against its presumptuous claim to reality.

What seems to be evil is but supposition, the shadow cast by a false claim. Good can never be blocked out, and darkness, or ignorance, is not a reality. There is no need for us to stand aghast at error's shadow if we use the control we have been given in Christian Science to correct confused thinking.

Evil sometimes appears magnified when truth is being declared and understood. Mrs. Eddy differentiates the real from the unreal when she writes, "Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal."^{ibid., p. 468;} Because evil is supposition, or shadow, it may appear to grow greater as the light of Truth shines ever clearer.