Perhaps one of the hardest things in Christian Science for people to grasp is the statement that matter is not real. Yet this fact is fundamental to the understanding and practice of Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: "Spirit is infinite; therefore Spirit is all. 'There is no matter' is not only the axiom of true Christian Science, but it is the only basis upon which this Science can be demonstrated." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 357.
An axiom is a self-evident truth. That matter is illusory is self-evident to spiritual consciousness but not to counterfeit material consciousness, which is entirely predicated on matter as substance and reality. It behooves Christian Scientists to pay more than lip service to this axiom of their religion. Every day, in our study of this Science, we read about the reality and allness of Spirit and the illusory nature of matter. We try hard to realize the truth that life, substance, and intelligence are spiritual, neither in nor of matter. Yet most of us find the evidence of "this too too solid flesh," as Shakespeare called it, very difficult to see through.
We do not deny the existence of matter just to be perverse, but because this can be demonstrated in healing and regeneration. Every Christian Science healing demonstrates to some degree that matter and its concomitants—sin, disease, limitation, and so on—are not intractable realities but inversions of the truth. Unless we are clear in our thought about the absolute allness of Spirit and the consequent nothingness of matter, our demonstrations are likely to be proportionately circumscribed.
