Historically, problems in the Middle East haven't tended to be resolved easily by military force. Thoughtful observers, both Arabs and Americans, Muslims and Christians, warn that military power may postpone a problem but doesn't necessarily solve it.

There is heartening new thinking going on. The recent united effort of so many countries for diplomatic action and restraint has been encouraging. It may, in fact, as Mikhail Gorbachev observed, have been unique in world history.

We probably should not be surprised that while military power is still a necessity in this world, force doesn't finally settle a problem of fiercely held conflicting views. Physical force never brings healing to that most serious area of conflict—the realm of people's thinking.

The Science of Christ offers needed help with the whole range of problems of conflict, large and small. It takes the standpoint that conflict is not related so much to differences between individuals or families or races or nations as it is based on the false impression that conflict and aggression are a given—that they are necessary and natural. To accept this self-fulfilling expectation is to encounter something that sooner or later serves as sufficient grounds for escalation of grievance into a "hopeless" situation.

But suppose you've been finding out that not only is conflict not natural but also it is essentially a false suggestion. In other words, the person or group you appear to be in conflict with is not the primary problem. The problem—and the real enemy—is an insistent but false feeling arguing to you that man lives in irreconcilable conflict. This spurs you to feel it is natural to act in a warlike, aggressive manner.

But as you've caught on to the fact that conflict is a suggestion which is mesmeric in character, you view it in a very different manner. Instead of tending to cooperate with it, you resist it every inch of the way. You are frankly suspicious of its necessity. You are not swept along, adding in your own anger and reaction.

Actually, someone has taught mankind exactly this means of dealing with conflict. Christ Jesus taught it. Yet by assuming that the Master's teachings are wonderfully inspiring but "only" moral and therefore impractical, we have nearly lost sight of his example and teaching. Christian Science, discovered and founded by Mary Baker Eddy, helps to demonstrate once again that Jesus' Christianity is so grounded in the law of God's universe, and is so insightfully taking account of the way things work in human life, that it can rightly be called scientific.

The writer of Ephesians in the Bible, referring to what he knew of original Christianity, said "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil." Early Christians knew Jesus had explained that the devil or one evil was "a liar, and the father of it"—the source of the basic carnal-mindedness which sets men against each other and against God.

Wasn't it because of this that Jesus advocated reconciliation instead of retaliation? He spoke against the ancient maxim of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" because he knew this would play into the hands of devilish suggestions.

Whether the enemy appears to be in a troubled marriage or across the hall in an office or across a national border, it helps to follow Jesus' rule. This is a position of strength, not weakness. Even in cases where it seems sensible to defend against irrational aggression, we need to keep open the door of thought to basic spiritual understanding. Through prayer we can begin to see that conflict is superimposed. It is imposed not only on us but on other persons or groups as well.

Christian Science explains that God's man is never truly in conflict. When our outlook is changed by spiritual insight and inspiration, apparently implacable, unresolvable differences can disappear. Even the twists and turns of history help to make it evident that the enemy was not the person or persons but the attitudes of the time.

Unless spiritual intuition is deeply grounded, however, in something universally true, it would be useful in only the mildest of circumstances. But it is grounded in the most profound law of the universe, God's law and His reality. Therefore it has healing practicality in even the harshest situations.

The spiritual and scientific reality is that God's universe is not fragmented into a million different deeply felt opinions and crazy, conflicting demands. The universe and man that were created by God were brought into existence by one divine intelligence. Oneness is therefore the great underlying truth of man's spiritual being. Division and conflict, by this standard, are always an error of mortal perception. They are what is unreal, made to seem very real by believing in something other than the presence and power of one active, infinite God.

As Mrs. Eddy said, writing to the Boston Globe at a time of conflict, during the Russo-Japanese war in 1904, "God is Father, infinite, and this great truth, when understood in its divine metaphysics, will establish the brotherhood of man, end wars, and demonstrate 'on earth peace, good will toward men'" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany).

Awakening to the actual enemy, we refuse to "give place to the devil." Then it is natural to see conflict diminishing.

Allison W. Phinney, Jr.