In the Christian Science Bible Lesson June 13, 2011 Issue

Consider spiritual evolution

For the lesson titled "Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?" from June 13–19, 2011

Ann Edwards

In considering the question posed by this week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?”—the only one of 26 Bible Lesson subjects presented in the form of a question—it’s helpful to know two historical facts.

First, up until 1918, when Rutherford split the atom, physicists believed that the atom was the smallest particle, or building block, of matter, and that it was indivisible. Second, it was just seven years before Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery of Christian Science in 1866 that Charles Darwin’s book titled Origin of Species had been published. In his book, Darwin theorized that natural selection was the means by which species either survived or died out. His theory of evolution, a theory that pitted man’s sole chances for survival against the haphazard material forces of nature, not only changed the way scientists understood man’s prospects for survival but caused enormous controversy among Christian believers—a controversy that still lingers today. 

In Science and Health, the first edition of which was published in 1875, Mrs. Eddy specifically refuted Darwin’s theory, explaining that “the true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development” (p. 547, citation 5 in this week’s Lesson). Convinced that “spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of divine power” (p. 135, cit. 10), she wrote that “Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, but an impartation of the divine Mind to man and the universe” (p. 68, cit. 3).