Who or what is it that sins? Who or what is it that commits crimes? Is it the real man, God's image and likeness? Mrs. Eddy establishes the standard of man's true being where she states in Science and Health, "The standard of perfection was originally God and man." She continues in the next paragraph: "God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression of God's being."Science and Health, p. 470;
Is that standard applicable today when society is confronted with problems of today's dimensions, when evil seems so rampant, manifesting itself in violent crimes, campus violence, courtroom violence, lax morality, and so forth? Are Christian Science and the Church of Christ, Scientist, relevant in meeting the crises of the times? Science and Health counsels us as to what our reaction should be to the sum total of material consciousness, or error: "We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?"p. 563;
Is there a criminal mind that commits crimes? No, in the perfect reality of spiritual being there is no opposite of God, divine Mind, who is All, but we must prove this fact. It is humanly right to protect and safeguard the rights of all citizens, and this includes the duty to punish properly in order to deter and reform the offender. But the greater metaphysical need is always present to impersonalize and nullify the evil that would try to attach itself to the individual. By constantly impersonalizing and denying power to error, we can see that it is no part of man's true nature and thereby aid in its destruction.
