Article May 2, 1983 Issue

Speaking the truth

KAY R. OLSON

When Christian Scientists speak of evil as nothing, they are reasoning from a spiritual viewpoint. In Science and Health, the textbook of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy states, "God, good, being ever present, it follows in divine logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of good, is never present."^{Science and Health, p. 72.}

Does this mean that students of this Science ignore the belief of evil? No, indeed. Evil is seen as error, a mistake concerning the nature of God and of His idea, man. Educated to think that God includes or allows evil, individuals are liable to feel vulnerable to a supposed destructive power they believe God condones, such as evil thought, criminal attack, disease, accident, death.

Christian Science has come to the world to reveal the true idea of God and the perfection of His creation. Science and Health tells us, "The exterminator of error is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind—called devil or evil—is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality."^{Ibid., p. 469.}