THE human exercise of reason may be correct or incorrect, depending upon individual viewpoint, experience, or the bias of education. That which to one may seem reasonable and sound, may to another seem unreasonable and unsound. This is because of the vagaries of the so-called human mind, which expresses the changing concepts of collective human opinions and beliefs, individually accepted and mentally emphasized.
On page 494 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy states: "Reason, rightly directed, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense;" and on page 452 she says, "Incorrect reasoning leads to practical error."
Reason, to be "rightly directed," must be directed by divine Mind, of which man is the intelligent idea. To the divine Mind, which is omniscient, all that really exists is known. Correct reasoning, then, begins with Principle or Mind, as All, and conforms to what Mind includes as real and eternal. With this direction one is properly equipped to discern the spiritual fact, and differentiate between the real and the unreal, the true and the false. Paul reasoned correctly when he said, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
