Materialism may be defined as any mode of thought that places emphasis on matter, whether as cause or as an object of fear or desire, and whether this is done consciously or unconsciously. In one sense, everyone reading this is a materialist, since we all seem to have unconsciously accepted the belief that ideas can be apprehended through the physical senses. Christian Science, however, provides us with a way of working out of this belief, toward the spiritual apprehension of reality, the eternally harmonious universe of Spirit.
One of the apparent obstacles we are confronted with is the conscious propagation of materialism as a historical and philosophical doctrine: the teaching that both history and reality itself are materially based. Simple though it seems, this teaching is beset with almost incredible complexities as it attempts to account for the role of consciousness. Materialism is particularly evident in some academic quarters where its very complexity (arising from its inability to explain anything satisfactorily) tends to make it appeal to an intellectual subtlety that counterfeits the omniscience of Mind.
Materialism is a pernicious and destructive aspect of mortal mind, of a supposed mind apart from God, and the true sense of Spirit, God, destroys it. Therefore materialism would blot out, if it could, its destroyer and obscure Spirit's manifestation, the spiritual universe. Mortal mind may even propose its own version of the kingdom of heaven: an earthly paradise, which must, of course, first be brought about by material means. This attempt is doomed from the start, because matter is an illusion, and anything based on matter is based on an illusion.
