Article January 17, 1976 Issue

Evil Is Unreal, Unknowable

RICHARD CLAUDE HAW

Few statements in Christian Science appear more contentious than the declaration that evil is unreal. Belief in a devil or in evil powers is still strongly held by vast numbers of mankind. Nobody would dispute the appearance of evil or of matter as a phenomenon, as something apprehended by the physical senses. But the human senses are unreliable and do not interpret reality correctly.

Real identity exists spiritually, eternally, unchanged, irrespective of material conditions. That which appears as evil—error—is the material senses' misperceived view of what really exists. The carnal, or mortal, mind sees its own false pictures in terms of its own limited material frame of reference; but right where the false picture seems to be, there instead is perfect spiritual reality, which exists as the entirely good expression of creative Mind, God.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand."^{Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 60–61;}