THERE is one God; He is All, and He is good. His creation, that which emanates from Him, manifests His goodness, wisdom, and love. These truths, revealed by Christian Science, find Biblical confirmation in the first chapter of Genesis, which states, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." How simple, how logical, how true, that God has created good only!
Evil cannot be associated with good, and it cannot be identified with God or with man, God's image and likeness. Evil is not an expression of Truth, Principle, Mind, or Love, and therefore it cannot have reality. Then one may ask, Why does evil seem to exist, to have power, and sometimes to be a part of my experience?
In her Message to The Mother Church for 1901, Mrs. Eddy gives a lucid explanation of evil's seeming reality. She says (p. 14): "Do Christian Scientists believe that evil exists? We answer, Yes and No! Yes, inasmuch as we do know that evil, as a false claim, false entity, and utter falsity, does exist in thought; and No, as something that enjoys, suffers, or is real." And in the same paragraph she continues, "We regard evil as a lie, an illusion, therefore as unreal as a mirage that misleads the traveller on his way home."
