The question "If God is good and is All, why is there so much suffering in the world?" is age-old. The article by a Sunday School teacher on page 386 of this issue of the Journal indicates the possibilities such a problem presents for a group discussion among young people who know something of the teachings of Christian Science.
This question needs to be answered. Left without a satisfactory explanation, it underlies the rejection of God by many self-styled atheists. Natural faith in the Rightness of justice, goodness, and adequate supply for all is so strong with some people that they rebel against what they observe of the suffering of humanity around them. Believing that pain, the torments of hunger and grief, disease, injustice, and squalid living conditions actually exist but are wrong, they turn against the concept of a supreme power that could either cause or tolerate such conditions for its creations. The most charitable thing they feel they can say of such a deity is that he doesn't exist.
Yet the conclusion that may lead to such a denial of the existence of God is based on a faulty premise and on reasoning developed through speculative theories dictated by the testimony of unreliable witnesses. It is built on the acceptance of the suggestion that there actually is a mortal, material world in which suffering can exist. But, as Christian Science reveals, in truth there is no such world.
Revelation insists that the universe is the outcome of one supreme cause, God, good, or Spirit, and from that basis reason explains that, since like reproduces like, the universe must be spiritual and wholly good. Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook: "The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence except the divine Mind and His ideas. The Scriptures also declare that God is Spirit. Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything in God's universe expresses Him." Science and Health, p. 331;
To the physical senses it seems unrealistic to maintain that all is Spirit and spiritual. These five senses witness to the existence of matter—to its density, color, form, flavor, and texture. They argue that from their point of view matter exists. They claim they know it does because they can see, feel, hear, taste, and smell it in various forms. Such evidence, maintains the human intellect, is irrefutable.
But these witnesses, the physical senses, are themselves material, therefore their testimony is inadmissible. They are bearing witness to their own substance and selfhood, and they can do this only with the flimsy credibility of an imaginary person in a dream who bears witness to the existence and substantiality of himself and other objects in the dream. In fact, that testimony does not prove the actuality of any part of it.
Christ Jesus encountered the same problem of credibility when he began to tell the people of his divine mission. The Pharisees said to him, "Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true." John 8:13; But he referred them to a higher witness, even to God, Soul, who would justify through spiritual intuition his divine mission.
Christian Science likewise looks to divine Spirit, God, to bear witness to the facts that it reveals—namely, that all is Spirit and spiritual, real being is altogether good and eternally harmonious, and matter is nonexistent, without power, intelligence, or substantiality. And today, as in the time of the Master's own ministry, the Christly understanding does come to those who are seeking Truth. It assures them beyond any question that God, Spirit, divine Love, is All, and as a consequence, there is, in reality, no discord or sorrow, no disease or deprivation—no matter or negative material influences or powers to harm or destroy God's perfect, spiritual creation, including man.
Many people are today becoming increasingly convinced of these truths of divine Science. In moments of spiritual enlightenment they catch glimpses of spiritual reality that are undeniable and unforgettable. These glimpses come through God's grace to those who are ready and receptive, and when the recipients hold to the inspiration and cherish it, their understanding and ability to use it grow. They are able to help others as well as themselves by destroying both belief and evidence that evil exists in any form, and by establishing instead that God, good, alone is present and has power.
The vision of God's allness and the implications of this revelation are so vast that they cannot at once be fully understood, nor can they be immediately demonstrated in full. Consciousness is not instantly so completely transformed as to abandon all the preconceived images of mortal thought that have seemed real for so long. But from the first glimpse of the Christ, Truth, the mesmeric hold of the belief, or dream, of mortal life, with its conclusion of the substantiality of matter, is under stress. The falsity of evil is to some extent exposed through the awakening of the spiritual recognition of the infinitude of God, good. Corporeal sense becomes as a consequence suspect, and evil, suffering, lack, and discord are doomed.
Patience and perseverance are needed in working out each facet of the problem of evil's seeming actuality—and also steadfastness in holding to and making practical the vision shown to us through spiritual sense. How long will it take before the last vestige of evil is destroyed? Mrs. Eddy writes, "The period required for this dream of material life, embracing its so-called pleasures and pains, to vanish from consciousness, 'knoweth no man . . . neither the Son, but the Father.'" Science and Health, p. 77.
Meanwhile, there is much we can do for humanity. Every prayerful acknowledgment of Truth, every denial of error and wholehearted affirmation of the presence of good, has an effect. Everyone who even glimpses God's allness can help to destroy evil for the world.
