A perennial subject for discussion is whether the Adam-and-Eve story of creation (Genesis 2 and 3) should be taught in the schools along with Darwin's theory of evolution.

Christian Science sees creation in a different light from both of these. As the first chapter of Genesis makes clear, God is the one creator. He not only causes all that is but makes nothing unlike Himself. So this chapter leads logically to its radical conclusion: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, resolves the contradiction between this view and the Adam chronicle of a good-and-evil creation by showing that the latter is an allegory—quite a useful one if viewed rightly as the obverse or counterfeit side of the spiritual reality pointed up in Genesis 1 and the first three verses of Genesis 2. By studying this account, though never accepting it as other than fiction, one can see the fatal results of believing in a mortally material creator and creation.

Matter no part of creation

In speaking of the opponents of Christian Science Mrs. Eddy observes, "They think of matter as something and almost the only thing, and of the things which pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very far removed from daily experience." She adds, "Christian Science takes exactly the opposite view." ^{Science and Health, p. 350;} The student of this Science soon learns to know God, the only creator, as both All-in-all and Spirit, or Mind. Spirit can't be partly matter. Nor can the All-Mind be partly nonintelligent.

As for the works that proceed from God, they must be spiritual. The Bible speaks of God as one "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" and asks: "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh." ^{James 1:17 and 3:11,12;} God would not and could not make the unspiritual, the mindless, the inert. So matter is not a factor in spiritual creation.

No limiting time frame

Both traditional theology and Darwinian theory imply a beginning and hence an ending. In both, mortality is a built-in factor. Christian Science lifts the picture out of a limiting time framework and recognizes good as something that always was and always will be. See, for instance, what Mrs. Eddy says about the term "beginning" on page 502 of Science and Health, about "evenings and mornings" in her explanation of Genesis 1:5 on page 504, and "seven days" in her explanation of Genesis 2:2 on page 520. Elsewhere she writes: "In its genesis, the Science of creation is stated in mathematical order, beginning with the lowest form and ascending the scale of being up to man. But all that really is, always was and forever is; for it existed in and of the Mind that is God, wherein man is foremost." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 57;}

Momentum is Spirit's impulsion

Natural science theory says that for something to move, an energy source is needed, and it hypothesizes a multitude of them, from brain waves to atomic power. Christian Science sees God as the impeller of all action. And since God and what He creates is good, all action, too, must be good.

This Science demands more than faith alone. It requires proof of its statements. As the facts of spiritual creation are accepted, we begin to see the proof of their validity in the minutiae of life.

A proof of Mind's momentum

A series of incidents on our farm illustrates how an understanding of the unreality of matter and time, combined with a firmer grasp of the power of Mind's moving force, restored harmony.

It was lambing time. The winter had been hard. Because of snowdrifts, it was still difficult to get about on foot, on a tractor (if one could get it going), or on the road. Many projects we were at work on seemed at a standstill. On all sides there was evidence of sluggishness.

If there was one thing I did not need just then, it was longer hours or more work. Yet that is exactly what lambing portended. In praying about how to deal with the situation, I was impressed by a statement of Mrs. Eddy's from the Bible Lesson ^{in the Christian Science Quarterly;} : "Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious action." ^{Science and Health, p. 283.}

The word "inertia" I found especially interesting. There was the usual time-related meaning of delay or torpor. Then I also found the implication that the inert or mindless describes matter. Inertia, then, being both matter and time-bound, is the opposite or counterfeit of true activity.

What wonderful concepts unfolded to me during the next month! Oh, there were challenges, as there usually are in raising animals. But the challenges brought victories, too, as I was led more than once to be in the right place to resolve or help heal a situation. Yes, the hours were long, often extending over most of a night; but every day I saw new ways of looking through the mortal sense of things and of contemplating what was really going on from a more spiritual standpoint—not births but unfoldment.

Little by little I was freed from heaviness. Renewed buoyancy and progress began to enter into other aspects of my days, too. But grateful as I was for this, I was even more grateful for the spiritual development that was taking place.

Whether or not we are involved in raising sheep, all of us at one point or another have our "lambing" times. Does one more task seem just too much? Does progress seem slow or hidden? That's when we need to bear in mind more firmly the spiritual facts of timeless creation and the one "source of all movement"! Mind is and always has been the mover. And we all prove Mind's moving in increasing degree as we know it more consistently.