REASONING must be scientific in order to obliterate false belief. If reasoning is from a premise that is based on error, the error is certain to appear in the conclusion. If the premise is physicality, Mrs. Eddy shows where it leads when she says in Science and Health (p. 191), "Physical sense defines mortal man as based on matter, and from this premise infers the mortality of the body."
Reasoning from the testimony of physical sense, a Christian Science practitioner might conclude that a patient is fearful, hateful, resentful, and so on, and agree that he is suffering from an ailment because of these mental states. Since this false reasoning attaches error to person, it is a denial of the one primal cause, an acceptance of the belief that there is more than one Mind.
The first step to take in correcting these erroneous beliefs is to divorce error from its claim to an entity. To do this, we begin our reasoning by acknowledging Spirit as supreme and all-inclusive and its offspring as spiritual. What Spirit creates, Spirit causes to be perfect and to remain forever in the nature of its creator. Since man is spiritual, he manifests the intelligence of Mind, its all-power and all-presence. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 173). "If Mind, God, is all-power and all-presence, man is not met by another power and presence, that—obstructing his intelligence—pains, fetters, and befools him."
