Article July 24, 2006 Issue

JUST LIKE HIS FATHER

BY NICOLE VIRGIL

How many times have you heard someone refer to a person that way? Or "just like her mother," when it's about a girl. Popular opinion based on genetic and psychological research has it that we are all limited, to a large degree, by biology and circumstance. Such theories say that we have all been imprinted from birth with a variety of characteristics and predispositions, some positive and some negative, often limited and limiting.

Christian Science explains that life actually has a spiritual rather than a material basis. Our identity is good, spiritual, and permanent because it is from God—and is not reliant on variable human nature. The myth of heredity, along with its physical and behavioral consequences, can be lifted off through spiritual self-discovery, as we come to attribute life's true substance to God, who is all good and the only Creator. The degraded, matter-based, limited view of selfhood is not valid, because it could not be part of a loving God's creation.

The Bible teaches that God made everything, and that everything He made was good. "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good," is the way it's stated in Genesis 1:31. If God is infinite good, therefore, He could not be the author of anything limited, false, or harmful. Mary Baker Eddy concluded that "God is not the author of mortal discords. Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine Truth and Love destroy" (Science and Health, p. 231).