Looking at the world today, we may be tempted to believe that other forces besides God, good, exist to act, sometimes destructively, on mankind. One leading trend in common thought is to accept that illness, despair, and even death come to the globe in repeated, cyclical patterns. Specifically, a leading superstitious belief is that worldwide pandemics come in cycles of one hundred years—that in 1720, it was the bubonic plague; in 1820, cholera; in 1920, the Spanish flu; and in 2020, the coronavirus. However, according to an article on factcheck.afp.com (“Health experts dismiss false claim that COVID-19 fits a pattern of viral outbreaks every 100 years,” March 16, 2020), the dates believed to be associated with the arrivals of these illnesses aren’t even close to accurate. But the point here is that believing in such a pattern would encourage a fatalistic attitude rather than indicate opportunities for healing whatever threatens mankind.

In her textbook on prayer and healing, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, offers a way forward in this regard. She writes, “It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony” (p. 390).

Any belief in cyclical events supposed to bring suffering can be ruled out through an understanding of God.