MRS. EDDY'S approving statements concerning academic studies, on page 195 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," point out the opportunity open to every high school and college student. She says, "Through astronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics, thought passes naturally from effect back to cause." And she adds: "Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal." Unfortunately, however, these subjects are not always taught in such a way as to achieve the high values she describes. But any student who is also a student of Christian Science should have no difficulty in making whatever he learns count towards his development Spiritward. Effort is needed to gain this benefit, this effort taking the form of constructive criticism of the studies, in the light of Christian Science, and of scientific reversal or denial of material claims to reality. This process of mental rectification requires constant attention and brings rich blessings.
It is obvious to most college students today that one cannot go openeared to all his classes prepared to believe everything he hears. Students are often warned by their professors that knowledge must be considered as tentative, and that it is to be appropriated only after careful thought and criticism. In some classes discussion is invited. But beyond the right use of these opportunities there is great benefit in applying to every lesson, lecture, and assigned reading the measuring rod or standard of Christian Science, by which to judge its worth.
Let us consider the case of the natural sciences, which not only are designed to aid us in using the so-called forces of nature in daily living, but also are said to furnish us with methods of thinking. The so-called scientific method indicates how data collected through the senses may be interpreted, integrated, and formulated into hypotheses; and in certain limited human affairs this method seems useful. Yet our study of Christian Science impresses upon us the unreliability of the senses; it shows how we often see what we think, and believe what we want to believe or what we have been taught. Christian Science teaches that the external world as we see it is only the product of mortal mind, so called, and that reality cannot be perceived by the material senses. We are taught that Jesus changed material conditions by metaphysical control; and we know that in our practice of his teachings, as understood in Christian Science, we have been able often to change appearances from inharmony to harmony, thereby proving that superphysical (metaphysical) truths constitute all reality. Hence the natural sciences have in themselves no lasting foundation.
