Article January 2, 1984 Issue

What do you mean, "unreal"?

HUBERTA F. RANDALL

A friend of mine and her husband belong to a Quaker colony that is devoting itself to the alleviation of the local people's many needs. The couple are living in a particularly troubled part of the world, where they sometimes witness senseless cruelty. Is it any wonder that she asked me in one of her letters: "How can Christian Scientists believe that evil is unreal?" Very likely others who are little acquainted with this Science wonder about that, too.

Christian Science stresses the importance of understanding the meaning of "real" and "unreal." Without this understanding, one may accuse Scientists of being heartless. With it, he can help bring about evil's ultimate downfall.

What Christian Science accepts as real is epitomized by a few profound words in its textbook, Science and Health, where Mrs. Eddy writes, "That only is real which reflects God."^{Science and Health, p. 478.} This statement is firmly based on the record of creation in Genesis: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."^{Gen. 1:31.} If all that is divinely created is good and real, then what is not good is not divinely created and is therefore not, in the most fundamental sense, real.

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