IN Christian Science the endeavor is made, and successfully, to distinguish clearly between understanding and mere belief, when reference is made to the truths of God. This is not peculiar to Christian Science; for in every department of human thought the same is continually being done. In the practice of civil law, for example, the clearest line of demarcation is drawn between the knowledge or understanding of a fact and mere belief concerning the fact, the former alone being accredited of value as evidence. Similarly, in the investigations of natural science only ascertained facts are accounted worthy, mere beliefs about them having no value.
Now it is the easiest thing possible to hold a belief about something which may be quite other than the truth about it. To take a very simple illustration from arithmetic: a child may believe that twice two is five, whereas the truth is that twice two is four. The child can only believe, he cannot know, that twice two is five; and his belief is erroneous. On the other hand, he can know, or understand, or possess the knowledge, that twice two is four. And what is of the greatest importance is that he can make use of his understanding of the fact by using it correctly in accounting; whereas the erroneous belief, if persisted in, will continually result in error in any calculation into which it may enter.
What has just been said will be readily admitted by everybody; but the strange thing is that while intelligent and rational people as a rule rely on their understanding of facts and discard mere beliefs regarding them, when it comes to questions of religion, questions which are concerned with the very fundamentals of existence, they often have a peculiar way of resting content with mere surmise, with mere belief, even to the extent in many cases of discarding spiritual facts altogether. The history of the religions of the world sets forth many a pathetic tale of the ascendancy which mere belief or credulity has exercised among peoples uncivilized and peoples more or less civilized, leading them not infrequently into the most pathetic depths of darkest superstition.
