The word realistic is a current favorite among journalists and public speakers. It is rare, indeed, for any of us to go through a day's experience without repeated admonitions to be realistic; and measures of general interest, like laws and treaties, have come to be judged, in large part at least, on the basis of whether they have or have not been realistically conceived. Use of this term is questioned by students of Christian Science, who are deeply concerned with distinguishing the real from the unreal and are, therefore, on guard against any language which may prove misleading.
The basic difficulty is that behind every material word or statement is the impact of the human mind. Paul says (I Cor. 2:14). "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The natural man to whom Paul refers is the material concept of man. This man can express himself only in terms of the things which from moment to moment occupy his so-called mortal mind. His thinking is restricted by the five physical senses underlying the false beliefs that tangible possessions are necessary to happiness; that lack of human society breeds loneliness; and that requisite for good health are diet, fresh air, exercise, rest, and, when prescribed by a doctor, medicine. He cannot, while he is thus limited, understand the things of God because, as the apostle has pointed out, these must be spiritually discerned. His expressions are bound to be in the language of corporeality, reflecting limitations.
The word real and its derivatives, for example, in their usual connotations, relate to material existence as distinct from spiritual. The test of something real is usually decided on the basis of whether it can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched through the medium of the physical senses. The positive assertion that the very opposite is true—that those things which are seen only through material sight are unreal, and those which are spiritual and unseen are the real—may come as a shock to mortal mind, but it is axiomatic in the Science of being, as unfolded by Mary Baker Eddy.
