Editorial September 4, 1976 Issue

The Verdict of Science

Geoffrey J. Barratt

The final significant question is not whether this human verdict or that—this physician's diagnosis, that lawyer's opinion, this partner's decision—is right or wrong, sensible or foolish, just or unjust. The question to ask in any dilemma or uncertainty is, What is God's verdict? The essence of God's judgment—it's represented in Christian Science and is the soundest conclusion we can come to—is expressed in these words: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."^{Gen. 1:31;}

Where we ultimately turn for truth determines the success or otherwise of our experience. If we look only to evaluations stemming from the personal senses and human reason, our judgment—no matter how positive-sounding—will be finite and restrictive in the last analysis.

Typical verdicts of these senses can be that we're sick and will be for another month or so; that we're broke and can never recover; that our business can only go downhill; that our employer will never learn to handle staff. "Accepting the verdict of these material senses, we should believe man and the universe to be the football of chance and sinking into oblivion," Mary Baker Eddy notes. Then she shows the way out: "Destroy the five senses as organized matter, and you must either become non-existent, or exist in Mind only; and this latter conclusion is the simple solution of the problem of being, and leads to the equal inference that there is no matter."^{Rudimental Divine Science, pp. 5-6;}