Sometimes, when giving thanks for a healing brought about through Christian Science, the testifier says that he or she has had a small demonstration of healing. No doubt the adjective "small" is used in this context with a sense of humility, and its use in this way is both commendable and understandable. But can demonstration, strictly speaking, be either large or small? Can demonstration, or proof, be subject to degree?
However little we prove, proof is proof, not theory. The difference between Christian Science and theory is that Science is practical, provable, demonstrable, so long as its rules are followed, whereas theory may be nothing more than speculation or a preliminary step in the search for truth. Theory is a stage — sometimes a very important stage — in the development of thought still operating in the abstract and not yet at the point of establishing rules by which its hypotheses can be proved scientifically.
The unfolding to humanity of the true concept of God can be likened to the change from a theoretical belief in Deity to a practical understanding of God. Early civilizations believed in a power outside themselves, although their gods usually took a physical form which their material senses could understand — the sun, the moon, a statue in wood or stone.
