Does life begin with material conception? Are chance and happenstance involved with creation? Are the many forms of life simply the products of complicated physical genetic interactions that have been taking place for countless aeons? Is life material, and is it under the control of a complex array of material laws?
In Christian Science we are taught that God, Life, expresses Himself in life that is spiritual and eternal; in other words, without beginning or ending. Man in God's image has always been, is now, and will ever be at one with Him.
However, in pondering this fundamental concept we are apt to find ourselves in a puzzling situation. This dilemma is the result of our having to accept the fact of preexistence—in the sense of life before birth—before we can begin to understand that life does not start with material conception, or, for that matter, with any laboratory experiment of the "new" biology. The acceptance of preexistence is a prerequisite to understanding the fraudulence of the many and varied claims of materiality. Understanding the falsity of these claims opens the door to the wider spiritual vision we seek in our study of Science. "Mortals will lose their sense of mortality —disease, sickness, sin, and death—" Mrs. Eddy states, "in the proportion that they gain the sense of man's spiritual preexistence as God's child; as the offspring of good, and not of God's opposite,—evil, or a fallen man." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 181;
