The mystery of the origin of evil has been a prolific subject of philosophical contention throughout the ages. The numerous theories regarding the origin of evil which have found place in prominent systems of human thought, separate themselves naturally into two distinct groups. In the one group may be included those which represent evil as identified with the cosmic reality, co-existent with being itself, an eternal, indestructible element. In the other group may be included those which represent evil as merely phenomenal, a relative, illusory aspect of things, a necessary factor of experience in the evolution or unfolding of finite intelligences. Both of these views are arrived at through processes of inductive reasoning, which presume to begin with legitimate experiences pertaining to some phase of being, these experiences being included, therefore, in the universal scheme of things. Christian Science, however, rejects both the foregoing views, and assumes as its starting-point the affirmations of a higher intuitive order of perception, a self-evidently superior sense of Truth, which apprehends God, good, as all. From this absolute premise the conclusion inevitably follows, that that which is called evil can have no existence, either noumenal or phenomenal, in the actual order of being; in other words, that it is unreal,—not included in the divine scheme of creation or embraced in the divine consciousness. But, it is objected, how can such a position be seriously maintained, when evil is everywhere recognized as a factor in human experience?
The ends of right thinking will, perhaps, be better subserved by an examination of the type of consciousness from which this and other similar objections spring, than by undertaking a direct answer to the query itself. Approaching the question in this manner, it will be found that the type of consciousness in which the sense of evil obtains is wholly incompetent, on its own admission, to grasp or deal consistently with the fundamental verities of existence. Mortals are obliged to assent to certain propositions that seem at variance with the dictates of human reason, because the superior evidence of a higher order of perception compels their acceptance, Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. Human reason cannot, for example, grasp the ideas of boundless space or limitless time; of self-existent being, first cause, or anything in the nature of the absolute and unconditioned. Yet, incomprehensible as these things are, from its point of view, they are recognized as veritable facts. Indeed, the process of reasoning is inconceivable except on the basis of certain propositions embraced in this category—propositions which the human reason, unsustained by higher authority, is impelled to contradict rather than confirm. In like manner, the difficulty encountered in assenting to the affirmations of the scientific sense of being, as revealed in Christian Science, is found to lie, not in the nature of the propositions offered, but in the inadequacy of the medium or vehicle of thought through which unquickened mortal sense seeks to apprehend Truth. An imperfection in the lens of an optical instrument may produce an illusion which, projected before the vision of the observer, is mistaken for an objective reality. Likewise, mortals, unaware of the beclouding conditions under which their investigations are being conducted, attribute the phenomena of evil which they seem to recognize in the universe, to the operation of real forces outside the jurisdiction of their own thought. So long as mortals continue to study the problems of existence through the defective lens of human reason, they cannot discern the actual situation for human reason has been so warped by a false education that it is incapable of apprehending Truth, even as the sense of limitation and ignorance cannot reach an appreciation of infinity and omniscience.
The attempt of human reason to establish a logical basis for the origin of evil, must always prove abortive. All such hypotheses are like houses built upon the sand. However diligently the realm of causality may be explored in the attempt to determine the pedigree of evil, error is never found to be the offspring of Truth. The real or spiritual creation is apprehended only as the sense of evil disappears.
