Christian Science reveals God as the perfect, infinite Mind and man as the perfect image or reflection of this Mind. But from the way most of us see man, he seems to be both material and spiritual, embodying life and death, sickness and health, good motives and bad motives, love and hate, and so on. Mary Baker Eddy explains this human dualism in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures on page 466. The immortal, limitless, intelligent qualities in the human consciousness are true, but the mortal, limited, and nonintelligent qualities are false. And she says, "Moreover, Truth is real, and error is unreal. This last statement contains the point you will most reluctantly admit, although first and last it is the most important to understand."
As one comes to understand this point, the conditions he encounters in his daily life can be seen as seemingly combined presentations of the divine Mind, which is Truth, and of mortal mind, which is error. A problem is an opportunity to understand better the reality of spiritual Truth and the unreality of mortal error. The mortal, limited, unintelligent elements of any situation are actually unreal. As their unreality becomes apparent, they disappear. We say a healing has taken place. And the individual has moved a step closer to the total realization of perfect Mind and man.
"The scientific statement of being," which amplifies this "most important" point and provides the complete solution to the problem of human dualism, is given on page 468 of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health. It begins, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." If mere repetition of this statement could enable us to separate error from ourselves, we would have but to memorize and repeat it whenever the occasion arose, and we would have a healing. But there is a moral requirement to be met if we are to understand what the statement says and employ its power.
