Because is such a common word that its significance is easily overlooked. It is derived from a combination of by and cause. So, in a sense, whenever we use the word, we are actually stating both a cause and an effect. Do we ever stop to question our becauses? For instance, do we have to have a cold because we sat in a draft? Or indigestion because we ate a certain food? Or a loss of sight or hearing or strength because we are older? Christ Jesus certainly did not accept as causative whatever appeared to him. The more than four thousand men, women, and children did not have to go hungry because there were only seven loaves and a few fish to feed them. Nor was stoning of the adulteress woman inevitable because she had committed a sin.

From as far back as history goes, mankind has been searching for becauses. Why does the wind blow? Why do blue and yellow paint make green? Why are we here? Many scientists are looking for an ultimate cause or universal laws or principles. Religious belief generally calls the primal, or first, cause God. But then it stops there, only identifying God as the one great cause. Christian Science, however, goes on actually to answer the question "What is God?"

It recognizes that God must indeed be the Principle, the one cause of the universe, and then it defines this Principle as divine Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love—all terms for God that are stated or implied in the Scriptures. How meaningful and rich is this recognition of God! It indicates the all-inclusiveness of Deity and is the premise for determining the nature of man and the universe, of defining reality. Logically, the universe and man must express the nature and qualities of God, since creation must be like the creator. Therefore Life must be constantly expressed in aliveness; Love, in harmony and peace; Spirit, in spirituality; Soul, in indestructible identities and capacities; Truth in truthfulness and uprightness; Mind, in intelligence and understanding. "The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind," Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, the textbook of Christian Science.

When we relate because to the primal cause, or God, the word gives authority to a statement. What peace and assurance we can find then in the Psalmist's promise "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." And we have equal authority for saying, "Because I am made in the image and likeness of God, I am wholly spiritual and therefore not subject to materiality—whether in the form of pain, unhappiness, illness, or sin." Or, "I am not limited —by time or a finite amount of talent or income or intelligence —because I reflect God's infinite nature." Understood in this way, because brings God's law to bear on a situation. And such realizations, seen and wholeheartedly accepted, carry with them not only authority but freedom.

But what about ungodlike things such as hate, fear, anger, timidity, naivete? When we apprehend God as the only real cause, we see that these, being unlike God, cannot have an actual cause. They therefore must be fundamental misconceptions of God's and man's nature and so no part of reality. "There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause," Science and Health states. In Biblical language, we might use the term curse causeless to describe these false traits. And Christian Science teaches how to eradicate them (as well as disease and limitations) by comprehending and embracing spiritual truth.

Spiritually viewed, because relates man to God. It is also what separates practical, scientific Christianity from human-mind systems, which are based on positive thinking or on the manipulation of one human mind by another. Christian Science is not thinking healthful bodily thoughts or visualizing health. It is understanding that one is well because man is the eternal expression of the divine Principle, God, who is forever perfect and intact.

Prayer, as Christian Scientists practice it, often takes the form of spiritual reasoning from the premise of God, Spirit, as cause, to man and the universe as effect. This brings spiritual facts to light; it reminds us of what is spiritually true.

A Christian Science practitioner was called in the middle of the night by someone who was in acute pain. As the practitioner turned to God for guidance in praying for the caller, a light broke through, "Because he is man, he is free!" The qualities and attributes of God's man flooded her thought. She saw that man is God's expression and that God's expression, or reflection, cannot be unlike God, or good. In a short time, another call came from the man, reporting that he was well again.

Whether one states a truth or points out an error, it is often important to know or explain the because. For example, a teacher looking over Kevin's shoulder may point out that he has misspelled a word in a story he is writing. But will that correct it? Kevin may acknowledge what is wrong, but in order for him to learn, he must see that "skool" is wrong because the correct spelling is "school."

A Christian Scientist noticed one day some discomfort in her neck when she moved a certain way. She dismissed the pain. Later, however, when she repeated the motion, the pain was more intense. This was enough to alert her to recognize the because behind her initial dismissal of the discomfort. She knew that pain wasn't true because reality is entirely spiritual and good. This fuller realization of truth brought an end of the pain.

But sometimes evil becauses seem only too real and legitimate. "I'm afraid because of the war ... this disease is considered incurable ... I have looked for employment for several months and haven't found any." One time Elisha, the Old Testament prophet, and his servant were surrounded by a hostile army sent to capture them. The servant was utterly dismayed. But Elisha's confidence in God made the prophet fearless, and he prayed that his servant's eyes might be opened, "that he may see." Then the servant saw that "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." The two were never harmed. In fact, in the end, they led their captors captive. We, too, are continuously surrounded by spiritual truth and have immediate access to God's help through prayer that humbly asks that our eyes may be opened to see this truth. As we do this, fear lessens and we are able to feel God's presence.

In one sense, not only fear but disease might be considered a habit of believing which we unwittingly perpetuate with a wrong sense of becauses. We can see, for instance, that since there never was a flat earth, the flat earth misconception had to be regularly rebelieved in order for it to continue. In like manner, we perpetuate disease when we give it not only a cause but a history. "It all started when a friend made an unkind remark ... someone insisted that I try cocaine just once ... my parents divorced." We would resist vigorously any attempt of a hypnotist to induce disease in our lives. But how often we hypnotize ourselves! We rehearse the symptoms of a disease, perhaps ascribe it to heredity or past or present events; we consider its prognosis and sometimes even accept it as too powerful to combat. How much better to deny it any because or history and to resist it on the same basis that we would avert evil or crime. Christian Science not only makes it plain that there is no real because behind sickness or sin, but, more important, it shows us that there is a single divine cause of all that is real, which keeps us well and upright.

When we follow through with the recognition of God as the only cause, we see that the elements of cause and effect must also be inherent in every Godlike quality. Because this is so, purity, love, spiritual understanding, must always include effects. Every spiritual thought we think has to result in good, some benefit to ourselves and others. That is why James could write, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

Although cause and effect imply a relationship, this does not mean that they are separated in any way. One cannot separate aliveness from Life or Life from aliveness. They are the same in quality; they only differ in function. Nor are cause and effect a matter of successive actions but, rather, of premise and conclusion. "In the beginning" can very well be phrased, "To begin with." Time does not enter into the spiritual universe.

Man and the universe, as the effect of God, are constantly being caused, and this spiritual view shows that creation is continuously unfolding. Being is a state of constant "isness," of coexistence with God, without beginning or ending. As we learn to acknowledge God as the only cause, our becauses acquire more profound meaning. We use them less carelessly. And we realize the healing that comes from striving to live in the understanding of ourselves as the effect of the one "great and only cause"—God.