Article September 21, 1981 Issue

What do you do with a flood of false beliefs?

VIRGINIA L. SCOTT

When we were children, we delighted in asking friends: "Suppose you were locked in a bathroom. Water was running into the tub, and the faucets were stuck so they wouldn't turn off. You couldn't unlock the door, and there were no windows. What would you do?" The usual answer was, "I don't know" or occasionally even, "I guess I would drown!" Then we would shriek with laughter and ask, "Why not just pull out the stopper?"

What seemed to me then no more than a tricky joke now suggests a valuable lesson. When in trouble, let's not forget to pull out the stopper.

The student of Christian Science recognizes that difficulties are the result of believing that there is more than one power. This Science teaches that God, or good, is the only power—indeed, the All-in-all—and that any appearance of a second, or evil, force is a mistaken belief. It also explains that man is God's perfect spiritual idea. We may say this and think that we understand it, but whenever we are fearful, sick, or indulging in wrong actions, we are accepting the belief in an evil force opposed to the divine Mind—a force that can, in some inexplicable way, interfere with God's law of perfection and keep us from demonstrating this law and His omnipotence. Essential to the solution of any problem, physical, mental, or moral, is a willingness to pull out the stopper on false beliefs, to drain them away by seeing their nothingness. We need to persistently deny the claim of the so-called carnal, or mortal, mind that it exists and that it exists as an independent entity, which can thwart our efforts and triumph over Almighty God.

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