It is evident in Christian Science that what is required for the improvement of any human condition is a change of mental standpoint. Mortals believe that they live in a material body, and that they must gain their knowledge of the universe through senses belonging to this body. Viewed in such a way, the universe seems material, and subject to the conditions of materiality. Everything appears limited and susceptible to decay and discord. There appear to be plants which wither, animals which devour one another, and men and women who can be sick, grow old, and die. Because of the limitations of the senses through which it is believed the universe must be discerned, there seems to be such a thing as ignorance, which in turn results in dissatisfaction, fear, strife, want, and other undesirable conditions.
All these evil appearances, however, Christian Science shows to be not actualities, but distorted and illusory mental pictures, which are perceptible only from the supposed standpoint of an unreal mind in matter, mortal mind.. As Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with key to the Scriptures" (p.78): "The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak, the ferocious beast,—like the discords of disease, sin, and death,—are unnatural. They are the falsities of sense, the changing deflections of mortal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind." Scientific correction of such conditions, then, does not require that realities be changed, but only that correct views of them be gained; and Christian Science reveals the availability and naturalness of such views for everyone.
In actual fact, no one lives in a material body or is dependent on the so-called material senses for perception. Such a picture of man is the direct reverse of spiritual truth, in which man is ever the reflection of the all-knowing Mind, God. The individual in every instance lives, and moves, and has his being in this Mind, in accordance with the declaration of the Apostle Paul to the Athenians. Moreover, individual man is found in Science to be not a limited being within an unlimited one. He is an individualized manifestation of infinite Mind, everywhere present with this Mind, and his standpoint therefore—the spiritually true standpoint of everyone—is that of Mind, or God.
