Article December 10, 1984 Issue

Jesus and the Christ Science

CLIFFORD KAPPS ERIKSEN

Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein: undoubtedly these familiar names would appear on almost everyone's list of the ten greatest scientists of all time. Missing from most, however, would be an even more familiar name: Jesus of Nazareth.

True, he never wrote a scientific treatise or prepared a laboratory report. He never lectured at a great university or received a grant for scientific research. And yet, "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe," writes Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health. She then adds to this intriguing statement, "He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause."^{Science and Health, p. 313.}

All scientific thinking and investigation is involved, in one way or another, with cause and effect. Deductive reasoning, as used in the mathematical sciences, begins with an established cause and then looks for the logical effects resulting from that cause. Inductive reasoning, as practiced in the physical sciences, views the world from the standpoint of material effect and attempts to find the material causes of all observable effects.

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