When some of us were growing up, there was a particular arrangement of mirrors in certain clothing stores that was fascinating. There was a mirror on each side at an angle and one in the middle. If you stood in just the right place, you saw an endless repetition of yourself. Every image in the long line was smaller than the one before. And finally the image disappeared in the distance.

Doubt, it seems to me, has a similar effect. When we seriously doubt that there is real meaning to existence or when we doubt the presence of good, or God, it leads to a diminishing sense of life and selfhood.

A reasonable kind of questioning can of course lead to stronger understanding. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, encouraged original thinking. She felt this was essential to spiritual understanding. In an intriguing chapter in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures called "Some Objections Answered" she grapples forthrightly with some of the objections raised to believing in Christian Science. And she incorporated sixty pages or so of answers to quite tough and skeptical questions in Miscellaneous Writings.

Christian Science itself deeply questions religious dogma with a relentless spiritual logic. Its hallmark is understanding and demonstration, not blind acceptance. But there is a difference between reasonable questions and the crippling anxiety of doubt. Taken to its ultimate, this kind of doubt would obscure the infinite capacities and possibilities of man in God's image.

Such doubt may claim it exists because of unanswered questions. But actually, isn't this mental state more a noisy, continuous assertion than a question that is humbly seeking an answer?

Wasn't Christ Jesus describing such a mental attitude when he commented, "Having ears, hear ye not?" ^{Mark 8:18.} His words echo a verse from Psalms. The Psalmist says, when speaking of man-made idols: "They have ears, but they hear not." ^{Ps. 115:6.}

Christian Science throws additional light on this point. It explains that the very nature of the mortal, human mind is not to hear spiritual truths. The belief in having an intelligence apart from God, who is the All-Mind, is, after all, a kind of idolatry or idol-making. It is breaking the First and Second Commandments.

If we want to get free from debilitating doubt of spiritual truth, we need to recognize what has been going on. Doubt is the outcome of believing that a knowledge of truth is up to a mortal man. We suppose that a small human ego is capable of judging properly whether God, good, and spiritual truth exist and whether they can be of any help. It's really an astounding inversion and perversion of things!

Spiritual knowing and understanding can't be decided upon or taken hold of humanly. They are truly a matter of God's grace and giving. When we yield to the Christ, Truth— the divine message of man's true nature as God's image or expression—then we begin to see what God has done. It is exactly as the Bible tells us: "The Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." ^{Prov. 2:6.} We surely don't create or make spiritual understanding. It is a quality of God's man, the quality we find ourselves with as we comprehend God's allness and totality and man as solely His expression. The greatest progress in overcoming doubt therefore lies in ceasing to conceive of oneself mistakenly and sinfully—as separated from God, Spirit.

Humility is a significant step toward overcoming doubt. Obedience is another. To be willing to be what we in fact are, the image of God, is to discover answers and assurance right where doubts may have seemed hopelessly vivid. We begin to discern that the individuality God creates and sustains is untouched by doubt and so can't be diminished by it.

Isn't it time to stop carrying on an endless conversation with doubt? It would oppose the fulfillment of our being. There's life to live, spiritual love and purpose to participate in, divine reality to learn about and live in. As Mrs. Eddy points out in Science and Health: "It is unwise to doubt if reality is in perfect harmony with God, divine Principle,—if Science, when understood and demonstrated, will destroy all discord,—since you admit that God is omnipotent; for from this premise it follows that good and its sweet concords have all-power." ^{Science and Health, p. 130.}

Because it is the very nature of spiritual consciousness to understand, and God is giving this consciousness to man, we discover something quite remarkable. It doesn't take days or years to overcome doubt. There really isn't any physical distance to travel or time to wait between doubt and inspiration. The feeling of a long way to go is sheer illusion. It is as much an illusion as was the effect of the arrangement of mirrors in the clothing store. God's image—the spiritual reflection we actually are—expresses right now the divine understanding. Turning away from the emptiness of doubt, we can discover the fullness of inspiration—our fullness!

Allison W. Phinney, Jr.