Editorial September 22, 1980 Issue

Reasoning from reality

GEOFFREY J. BARRATT

We can often be deceived by the way things look. Seaweed twisting, leaning, undulating in the blue ocean may look as though it is itself originating its motion, instead of simply responding to the currents about it. The actuality is not the same as the seeming.

Christian Science leads us to question some appearances in a very fundamental way—that of disease, for a primary example. In fact, a change in our mode of reasoning—its premises and direction—has everything to do with developing an ability to heal spiritually, to maintain a sense of wellbeing, to live more lovingly and ethically. And, above all, to grow in understanding Deity and His infinite spiritual phenomena.

It's sometimes said that in the world today the most pervasive worry many people have is about purpose. They have concerns about identity: our reason for being here, what life's goal should be. Answers are not to be found in thinking out from material seemings. Alongside the marginal note "Right interpretation" in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, we read these words of Mary Baker Eddy: "The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be understood; but when explained on the basis of physical sense and represented as subject to growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, and must continue to be, an enigma." ^{Science and Health, p. 124;}