Questions (and answers) about origin
For the Lesson titled "Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?" from June 17 - 23, 2013
One can only imagine the time and resources spent on a mission as thrilling as the Mars Curiosity Rover Landing on August 6, 2012—a further step in man’s desire to know the origins of the universe and his place in it.
Mary Baker Eddy selected the topic “Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?” at a time when space exploration was almost inconceivable. Yet questions about the origin of the universe, as well as man, were very much in public thought.
This week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson explores the evolution of man and the universe from the basis of Spirit, not matter. The Responsive Reading is from a chapter in Job often interpreted as a kind of deific tongue-lashing to Job for challenging God’s authority. Rather than as a form of retribution, however, one might view the many questions as God’s way of drawing out Job’s thinking.
After catching a glimpse of the hugeness of God’s creation and the wonder of it all, Job exclaims, “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes” (Job 42:5, New Living Translation).
The six sections of this Lesson could be regarded as our own conversation with God, in which, like Job, we have the privilege of glimpsing that the universe, with man included, is evolved from God, Mind. Since evolve means to unfold, open, and expand, it’s critical to see what or who is doing the evolving. This statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures clarifies the spiritual source: “The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them” (p. 295 , citation 1).
But constantly changing human theories would consign evolution to a physical source. Again, Science and Health explains: “Changes in belief may go on indefinitely, but they are the merchandise of human thought and not the outgrowth of divine Science” (p. 12 , cit. 10).
Jeremiah, a seventh-century BC prophet who witnessed the collapse of Jerusalem and the deportation of his fellow Jews to enslavement in Babylonia, knew firsthand the dangers of that “merchandise of human thought.” His countrymen had abandoned God for other idols, so he gave a warning applicable to today’s leaky theories of evolution from matter: “My people have committed a compound sin: they’ve walked out on me, the fountain of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns—cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves” (Jeremiah 2:13, The Message).
Isaiah 43 is one of the great calls to freedom in the Hebrew Scriptures. The prophet is writing from that same Babylonian captivity Jeremiah witnessed, only now the message is the joyous return to Jerusalem, to their home. “Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him” (verses 6 and 7 , cit. 13).
Understanding that we too are “called,” “created,” and “formed” by God, Spirit, breaks whatever enslavement to material conditions would otherwise bind us in captivity. So even if our view is from Mars, it’s the spiritual evolution of the universe and man (including men, women, and children) that’s worth shouting about!
