welcome December 30, 2002 Issue

What time is it?

Marilyn Jones

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN. The end of one year, the beginning of a new one. A time for reflection, for plans, for new beginnings. At least that's what the calendar tells us—depending on which calendar you're following. And the fact that there is more than one calendar— many new years beginning at different times around the world—underscores how transient time really is. In fact, time, as we know it, is just one more human invention that binds and limits our thinking and our progress.

Dr. Laurance Doyle, an astrophysicist and Christian Scientist from Mountain View, California, talks in this issue about the spiritual ramifications of realizing that time has no foundation in reality. He points out, for example, that aging doesn't happen to ideas—such as 2+2=4—and that likewise, there's no scientific reason that "the number of times the earth goes around the sun" should have any bearing on human existence. Dr. Doyle's interview will provoke your thinking about space and time—and lead you to consider the assumptions we make about reality and our place in God's spiritual creation.

The founder of this magazine, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote extensively about the nature of reality and about the spiritual dimensions of time and space. For example, her book Science and Health describes heaven as "harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul" (p. 587). A similar picture of heaven emerges from the book of Revelation in the Bible, where St. John writes about the "New Jerusalem." The heaven he describes isn't a locale, but rather a state of being that takes place totally in consciousness. And you and I live in this state of consciousness right now.

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