The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, spoke directly and forcefully about the natural sciences. The significance of her discovery is yet to be recognized in these fields of human study and research, but even now there are many evidences of the accuracy of her predictions about the growth of these sciences. The perspicacity of her analyses of their limitations has also become increasingly evident as their methodology has developed and has become better understood. While some of the implications of the teachings of Christian Science have already found their way into the development of the natural sciences, it appears probable that future developments will feel their impact even more.
The truth which Christian Science has presented to the world is in the process of leavening the thought of mortals. While the natural sciences are among the most prestigious and humanly successful modes of thought, they too are being influenced by the facts which have been brought to light by Mrs. Eddy. In the one hundred years since the discovery of Christian Science, tremendous changes have occurred in the natural sciences. They have grown from a small activity which concerned few individuals and had little effect on human society to a position of major importance in human affairs.
In her selection of the word "Science" to label her discovery, Mrs. Eddy was clearly raising the term to a new range of significance. She drew a sharp distinction between the Science of Christianity and what she termed "the ordinary scientific schools" when in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she wrote, "Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dishonor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with material observations alone, this Science has met with opposition."Science and Health, p. 483; Yet some characteristics of the natural sciences, such as the importance of accumulated evidence or demonstration rather than opinion, the utilization of logically consistent reasoning, and the need for understanding rather than simply belief, correspond to those of Christian Science. The designation of the term "Science" might well imply that the natural sciences as a branch of human knowledge have a significant role in the improvement of human existence.
