Theories of the evolution of various species of material life from lower to higher forms continue to appear. In general, these theories have little or nothing to do with the understanding of God as creator, but reckon life as starting from some minute form of matter and evolving in a direct material line. Some natural scientists find it difficult to conceive of the evolution of species without a supervising, directing force which they call nature but which they cannot explain. Others believe that there is no evolutionary force aside from certain properties built into matter itself. Still others believe that God works consciously through matter to produce physical formations.

The conflict remains between certain religious theories and those of natural science in regard to the beginning of life. But Christian Science presents a unique viewpoint, for it separates the material sense of life from the spiritual and declares that God is the creator of spiritual life only. It also declares that what appear to be material formations are mental concepts produced by the human mind and that these formations must give place to the spiritual formations of divine Mind, the only true creative Principle.

Christ Jesus was making a scientific distinction between material and spiritual forms of life when he said (John 3:6), "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." His many healings were proofs that the fleshly sense is unreal and the spiritual is real.

Many times in her writings Mary Baker Eddy raises the point of evolution. For instance, she says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 551), "Evolution describes the gradations of human belief, but it does not acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that material methods are impossible in divine Science and that all Science is of God, not of man." Not until men stop looking for scientific truth in matter and learn to find it in divine Science will they realize that God is Life and that temporal forms of life are counterfeits of God's ideas. As humanity advances spiritually, the real will shine through the unreal. Material forms will be gradually transformed, and the mortal will eventually he dropped for the immortal.

According to Science, what God evolves is Godlike and manifests the characteristics of Soul, or divine Mind. Mind's evolving of ideas is its perpetual unfolding of distinct but incorporeal identities whose office is to express their perfect Principle. In Christian Science we learn that divine ideas coexist with the Mind that knows them and that they develop eternally since there is no limit to the goodness and intelligence which Mind manifests through its ideas. It logically follows that whatever is real, being spiritual, has neither beginning nor ending.

Here is an explanatory statement from Science and Health that should satisfy the searcher for the true sense of evolution (pp. 507, 508): "Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas material. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal man." And this is what has happened in the case of every material species—the true idea has been misinterpreted by mortal sense.

The Christian Scientist is dedicated to the correcting of misinterpretations of God's ideas. He sees little to be gained from the investigating of misinterpretations and directs his inquiries to the spiritual evolution of right ideas, for they lead him to Mind and to real existence in it. But he does not ignore human life or mankind's struggle to develop consciously into higher degrees of intelligence and beauty and goodness. He strives for constant advancement toward the idealism of divine Science, in which man is God's likeness and all creation is spiritually evolving eternally.

Jesus said of those who should follow him (John 10:10), "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." The Master's advanced understanding of life did not cause him to renounce religion or to advise others to do so. Instead it impelled him to teach men a higher sense of religion than they had known before, to love the spiritual, and to find satisfaction in working out their true relation to the Father.

By his ministry Jesus brought to light God's kingdom, wherein all forms of life are spiritual and divinely governed. His compassion showed that Love is the Principle of life and that evolution is not a Soul-less materialistic process but a divinely spiritual one. Humanity does not instantly jump from the material sense of life to the spiritual sense of it. But every healing and every bit of spiritual growth in Science gives evidence that the real is destroying the misinterpretation of it.

As one grasps the eternal, unfolding nature of creation, he finds that his life is no longer confined to grooves set by the general beliefs of mortals, but is expanding into wider and deeper expressions of divinity. He is demonstrating the evolution that never began and will never end. He is glimpsing the kingdom of light, freedom, and joy, which is his heritage throughout eternity.

Helen Wood Bauman