Christian Science presents to human thought an understanding of the true nature and being of man. Through revelation and reason Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, discerned man to be spiritual, now and always, as the likeness of Spirit, God. Recognizing that the likeness and image of God must be showing forth the nature of God Himself, Mrs. Eddy rejected through spiritual logic all the physical evidence which claims matter and its conditions to be man. Christian Science reveals man to be spiritual, not material. And in its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, the coexistence of God and His idea, spiritual man, is set forth as the fundamental fact of existence.
Upon page 470 of the Christian Science textbook it is written, "Man is the expression of God's being." Then to know man, one must know God; must know Him as the all-inclusive divine Mind, holding His creation as spiritual idea within His own conscious omnipresence. Because God is Spirit, knowing no matter, His likeness is spiritual, untouched by matter. Christian Science takes issue with all evidence which presents man as material, evil, and perishable, and reveals man to be spiritual idea, truly expressing the divine nature of the divine Mind, which holds its creation inviolate and incorruptible. Mrs. Eddy states this with complete clarity where she writes in her book "No and Yes" (p. 25): "That which is born of the flesh is not man's eternal identity. Spiritual and immortal man alone is God's likeness, and that which is mortal is not man in a spiritually scientific sense. A material, sinful mortal is but the counterfeit of immortal man."
The confused belief which looks upon man and the universe as material, Christian Science names mortal mind. The Apostle Paul spoke of it as "the carnal mind," and as that which sees "through a glass, darkly." As Christian Science is lived and practiced, thought abandons the mortal way of believing and adopts the spiritual understanding which discerns man as spiritual. Thus Truth is demonstrable. For the change of consciousness from false belief to true understanding brings change into daily life. There appear spiritual victories over erroneous views and practices, and the limitations and burdens of mortality yield to the goodness, the happiness, and the health which are God's expression of Himself.
