Tag Archives: Science and Health

150th Anniversary of the Publication of the Christian Science Textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

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“Oh God, I’m going to now read this Christian Science text… and it’s going to be heavy sledding… and I was stunned to read this absolutely magnificent kind of prose… Mary Baker Eddy was a wonderful writer… she writes gorgeously… and I kind of fell in love with it… I didn’t become a Christian Scientist, but I found it tremendously moving.”
– Tony Kushner, talking about the title to his new play, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures.  http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201405151000

Although I might not be considered a very religious person, I am very grateful for what the study of Christian Science has brought into my life – the healings I’ve experienced and my growing understanding of the power and presence of Love. And I’m very grateful to Mary Baker Eddy, the author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, for giving us the textbook for Christian Science. Science and Health was published back in 1875, but it’s still timely today, 150 years later. Even in 1875 Eddy was talking about consciousness, the nothingness of matter, invention and discovery, evolution, and atomic power – topics that we see being discussed among those who study quantum physics and other physical sciences today. Prophetically, Eddy wrote (on p. 125): “The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, – he will look out from them upon the universe; and the florist will find his flower before its seed. Thus matter will finally be proved nothing more than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man through its supposed organic action or supposed existence. Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The problem of nothingness, or ‘dust to dust,’ will be solved, and mortal mind will be without form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds himself God’s reflection, even as man sees his reflection in a glass.”

And the topics that are still being debated on religion discussion forums today are topics that Mary Baker Eddy addressed and dealt with almost 150 years ago. God, she told us, was not an anthropomorphic being, but “God” was another name for Love, Truth, Life, Spirit, Mind, Soul, Principle. Hell and heaven were not literal places, she told us, but states of mind. For her, the story of Adam and Eve was an allegory, not an actual event. She was progressive, far-thinking – a visionary.

I’ve read Science and Health from beginning to end probably five or six times. Most recently, I read it through last spring – and, once again, passages popped out at me for the first time that I’d never seen before. It’s, like, every time I read Science and Health the exactly right thought presents itself to me.

I thought that to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Science and Health, I might post some of my favorite passages from the book. But how to choose?! There are so many passages that speak to me and have brought me clarity and healing. I’m going to try to limit myself to twenty-five of my most favorite passages, but this is not going to be easy for me. Okay. Here goes:

The opening sentence to the textbook is profound:
“To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.” (p. vii)
(What a great way to start the day, right?! – expect blessings! – expect good!)

“Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” (p. 494)
(Love supplies all good, and withholds no good.)

“No power can withstand divine Love.” (p. 224)
(Love the hell out of the world.)

“Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.'” (p. 13)
(Love loves all Her creation, without discrimination, exclusion, or bias. Loves tells me I am Her precious child.)

“Love must triumph over hate.” (p. 43)
(A promise!)

“Human hate has no legitimate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned.” (p. 454)
(Love is the only power. Love’s government is the only legitimate government.)

“Meet every adverse circumstance as its master.” (p. 419)
(We aren’t victims. As expressions of God, we express all the power of God.)

“Harmony in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is unreal and mortal.” (p. 304)
(If it’s discordant, it’s not music; if it’s discordant, it’s not a part of us, or any of God’s creation.)

“At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.” (p. 571)
(Good always overcomes evil.)

“Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind.” (p. 291)
(If we feel joy and love we’re in heaven right now.)

“Fear never stopped being or its action.” (p. 151)
(Fear has no power over us.)

“We should master fear, instead of cultivating it.” (p. 197)
(Fear is not the boss of us.)

“The whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error.” (p. 1910
(Truth wins.)

“Eternal Truth is changing the universe.” (p. 255)
(Truth transforms.)

“…the light of ever-present Love illumines the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, – that infinite God forms and peoples the universe.”
(Imagine all of infinity filled with expressions of Love!)

“Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.” (p. 57)
(No one can be denied Truth and Love. Happiness comes from sharing Truth and Love.)

“If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science fo the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the supremacy of good, ought we not, contrariwise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to love sin and unnatural to forsake it, – no longer imagine evil to be ever-present and good absent? Truth should not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem so real as health.” (p. 130-131)
(The thought that disease is unnatural helped bring me a healing of what seemed to be an infected tooth this summer. I came to the understanding that there is no bad substance, and there is no lack of good substance, and it’s not natural to be diseased.)

“We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of the absence of light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of reality. So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before truth and love.” ( p. 215)
(This helps me answer the question, “Where does the bad stuff come from?” Just as darkness doesn’t have a source, the bad stuff doesn’t have a source – it doesn’t come from anywhere – it’s a big nothing.)

“Mind is the master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.” (p. 393)
(My mortal body is not the boss of me and I don’t need to look to it to find out how I’m doing. I am the boss of my body.)

“…progress is the law of God…” (p. 233)
and “In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step, never a return to positions outgrown.” (p. 74)
(We don’t need to fear losing ground or losing progress.)

“The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity.” (p. vii.)
(I find this bolstering.)

“Spiritual rationality and free thought accompany approaching Science, and cannot be put down. They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific means and so-called laws.” (p. 223)
(How reassuring!)

“Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate. They must renounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power. Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, must be their queen of life.” (p. 451)
(A mission and a purpose!)

And I’m going to include the 23rd Psalm (p. 578) , with its spiritual interpretation by Mary Baker Eddy. (Last spring, the line “Love anointeth my head with oil…” brought me a healing of an uncomfortable welty skin condition on the back of my head and down my neck and back – I could feel Love pouring over my skin and the next morning I woke up healed.):

[DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
[LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.
[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [Love] leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE’s] rod and [LOVE’S] staff they comfort me.
[LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: [LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [LOVE] for ever.

Okay. That’s about 25, I guess. I know I’ll think of more good ones as soon as I publish this post.

Click here to read, or listen to, the full text of Science of Health with Key to the Scriptures for free. The link will take you to the official Christian Science website, which has provided free access to the Christian Science textbook.

Reality and Simulation

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(Author’s note: This is one of those posts that I hesitate to publish. It’s… well it’s my “pondering stuff” voice, I guess.  But what the hell, right? What’s the worst thing that can happen here? No one reads it? P’shaw! I ain’t ascared. of having no audience for this one. In fact, that might be a good thing. 🙂 )

“Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time… Historically, simulations used in different fields developed largely independently, but 20th century studies of systems theory and cybernetics combined with spreading use of computers across all those fields have led to some unification and a more systematic view of the concept… Simulation is extensively used for educational purposes… Virtual simulations represent a specific category of simulation that utilizes simulation equipment to create a simulated world for the user. Virtual simulations allow users to interact with a virtual world.” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation

I’m reading Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures again. Every time I read this book I notice things I never noticed before. This time one of the things that has popped out at me is Eddy’s use of the word “simulate”. I probably didn’t notice this word the first time I read Science and Health – back in 1980 or so – because it wasn’t as commonly used as it is today. I wouldn’t have been able to relate it to anything in my own experience back then.

Eddy seems to have, once again, made a leap into the future with her use of the word “simulate” in Science and Health. Though her book was first published in 1875 – almost a century and a half ago – it makes mention of space travel, atomic power, and what today might be called quantum physics. So I probably shouldn’t have been surprised when I came upon the word “simulate”.

Contrasting  the creation of Adam in the second chapter of Genesis with the creation described in the first chapter, Eddy writes: “Beginning creation with darkness instead of light, – materially rather than spiritually, – error now simulates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declaring what things error has done.” She writes, “Close your eyes, and you may dream that you see a  flower, – that you touch and smell it. Thus you learn that the flower is a product of the so-called mind, a formation of thought rather than of matter. Close your eyes again, and you may see landscapes, men, and women. Thus you learn that these also are images, which mortal mind holds and evolves and which simulate mind, life, and intelligence.” A little further into Science and Health, and the author writes, “When we put off the false sense for the true, and see that sin and mortality have neither Principle nor permanency, we shall learn that sin and mortality are without actual origin or rightful existence. They are native nothingness, out of which error would simulate creation through a man formed from dust… Sin, sickness, and death are comprised in human material belief… They have neither Principle nor permanence, but belong, with all that is material and temporal, to the nothingness of error, which simulates the creations of Truth.”

It has been very helpful to me to see material existence as just a simulation – maybe one of those training simulators – providing me with the opportunity to practice separating the true from the false, to practice recognizing the real and eternal, and to practice translating all the good and beautiful we see represented  in the “simulator” back into its spiritual form.

“Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, – all point to Mind, the spiritual  intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity.” – Mary Baker Eddy

Mary Baker Eddy Had Chutzpah

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        Millions of unprejudiced minds – simple seekers forTruth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert – are waiting and watching for rest and drink. Give them a cup of cold water in Christ’s name, and never fear the consequences.
– Mary Baker Eddy, from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

I’ve started reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy again. This is probably the fourth time I’ve read this book. I get something different out of it each time I read it – I come upon lines that, for whatever reason, I never noticed before and that leap out at me and grab my attention. It’s like going on a treasure hunt.

This time what is jumping out at me is the sheer audacity – the unabashed chutzpah – of the book’s author. She doesn’t beat around the bush. She doesn’t try to sugar-coat what she believes to be Truth. She doesn’t write what she believes will make her popular. She doesn’t try to appease anyone else’s ego or try to make her book more palatable to the cynical or worldly. There is a kind of innocent, almost child-like, honesty in her words. I like her. She writes, “The author has not compromised conscience to suit  the general drift of thought, but has bluntly and honestly given the text of Truth.” And she ain’t kidding.

She first published Science and Health in 1875 – almost 140 years ago – and when you think about what the world was like in 1875 – what most religious folks believed at that time, what most scientists believed, what the common thought was regarding spiritual healing – I cannot help but admire the courage it must have taken to publish a book that pretty much went against most peoples’ most cherished beliefs. Her thoughts were progressive then, and they are still progressive today. She writes about atomic power, space travel, evolution, and what today might be classified as ideas found in quantum physics. She went against the common religious beliefs of her day with her thoughts on eternal damnation, heaven, an anthropomorphic god, the story of Adam and Eve, and atonement.

Regarding an anthropomorphic god, Eddy wrote: “The word anthropomorphic, in such a phrase as ‘an anthropomorphic God,’ is derived from two Greek words, signifying man and form, and may be defined as a mortally mental attempt to reduce Deity to corporeality. The life-giving quality of Mind is Spirit, not matter. The ideal man corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth. The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In divine Science, we have not as much authority for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity.” (Holy shamoley! Can you imagine how well THAT passage must have flown in a society in which  women didn’t even have the right to vote, yet!)

Regarding heaven and the idea of God sending her children to a place of eternal damnation, Eddy wrote: “Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind…” and “It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causation so as to bring about certain evil results, and then punishing the helpless victims of His volition for doing what they could not avoid doing. Good is not, cannot be, the author of experimental sins.” (Even today you’ll find people in “civilized” countries who believe that God sends his own creation to a place of eternal, torturous “time-out” – can you imagine how Eddy’s ideas about heaven and hell must have been received by the general population 140 years ago?!)

Eddy several times referred to the story of Adam and Eve as an “allegory,” she wrote, for example: “In the Scriptural allegory of the material creation, Adam or error, which represents the erroneous theory of life and intelligence in matter, had the naming of all that was material.” (In 1875 the story of creation and Adam and Eve was interpreted as a literal happening by most Christians. Her thoughts about the book of Genesis might have been considered heresy by some. Actually, her interpretation of Genesis might still be considered heresy by some.)

And regarding the atonement and the belief that Jesus died for our sins, Eddy wrote: “ATONEMENT is the exemplification of man’s unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man’s oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage. His mission was both individual and collective. He did life’s work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals,- to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility.”

Yeah. I am not at all surprised that there were – and still are – people who got all ruffled and riled up by her views. The close-minded, the arrogant, pompous, stodgy and self-righteous, were alive then, just as they are today. They can be found in every group (ahem, even, I am embarrassed to say, amongst those who call themselves “Christian Scientists”). But I don’t think Eddy was at all worried about what those people thought of her. She wrote her book for the other ones – the open-minded, the humble and the honest.

        In the spirit of Christ’s charity, as one who “hopeth all things, endureth all things,” and is joyful to bear consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick, she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth.
– Mary Baker Eddy, from the preface to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures