The student of Christian Science soon learns that Christian Science differs radically from all other religious systems on certain points of fundamental importance. So pronouncedly is this the case that some who perceive this difference regard it as so revolutionary as to preclude their going farther with the study. On the other hand, there are those who, while they admit the teaching of Christian Science to be radical, even revolutionary, are so persuaded of the accuracy of its reasoning that they proceed with their study and become devoted Christian Scientists, faithful in their endeavors to put the truths they learn into practice.
What does Christian Science teach, and wherein does its teaching differ from that of other religions, even from other Christian systems? It teaches that God is Spirit, and that He is infinite good. This declaration would probably be accepted by the great majority of Christians. But Christian Science goes farther and affirms that, because God is infinite Spirit, matter is unreal, and because He is infinite good, evil is unreal. Here is where Christian Science differs, radically differs, from other religious systems. Let there be no doubt about it—in affirming that God, Spirit, good, alone has real being, Christian Science maintains that matter and evil have no actual existence, that they do not exist as real entities.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states the position plainly on page 27 of "Miscellaneous Writings." She writes: "That God, good, creates evil, or aught that can result in evil, —or that Spirit creates its opposite, named matter,—are conclusions that destroy their premise and prove themselves invalid. Here is where Christian Science sticks to its text, and other systems of religion abandon their own logic. Here also is found the pith of the basal statement, the cardinal point in Christian Science, that matter and evil (including all inharmony, sin, disease, death) are unreal." From this it is seen that when Christian Science declares matter or evil to be unreal, it means that material or evil phenomena of every kind are unreal, including those phenomena regarded by mortals as the scourges of mortal existence.
