Think for a moment what life would be like if religion offered you no meaning—suppose you felt no belief in a Supreme Being. There would probably be a more radical difference than can easily be imagined because, for many people, a love of God is central to consciousness.
Anyone who has glanced across the map of religious history knows well that its contours include peaks of brilliance as well as valleys of dimness. Nevertheless, it is religion that has cradled the most significant exploration of ultimate Truth. In some ways religion could be likened to a fireworks display used in such celebrations as Independence Day in the United States. As a rocket soars skyward it explodes into an umbrella of color; and from those streams of light comes another burst that illumines the night, and then another.
Moses could certainly be described as contributing a radiant glow of religious insight through his recognition that there is only one true God. The world's Saviour, Christ Jesus, ignited the most brilliant flame. He set religion on a truly enlightened and irreversible course. And though the fact is not yet widely recognized, Christian Science is providing an effulgence that shines with the complete explanation of Jesus' teachings. Indeed, one of the purposes of divine Science is to inspire all of religious thought with Christ's pure Principle.
Religion can be very private, very personal; it can be collective, widespread. However progressive and perceptive it may be at any given moment, religion needs thoughtful nourishment by those who see it as fundamental to the liberation of mankind; it deserves to be shielded and strengthened. Not everyone realizes it, but the longing to know God, feel His presence, is inherent in every heart. We should encourage religion's highest possibilities—its capacity to genuinely satisfy people's spiritual craving.
Obviously this doesn't mean a growing emphasis on institutionalism and organizationalism. It does mean supporting whatever fosters the individual's discovery of man's relationship to God; it means fortifying and invigorating those avenues that effectively awaken a person to God's supremacy. This discovery process, this deep spiritual awakening, is what finding true freedom is all about.
A worldly attitude, materialistic thinking, resists religion— that is, it would assault the natural tendency toward searching out an understanding of God. Christian Science defines this assailing of spiritual growth as animal magnetism: an erring attraction to fleshly or material instincts. This attraction imprisons; it never liberates. In some instances, attacks on the spiritual richness that religion is capable of offering mankind come from within—at times misguiding, through overzealousness, those who most profess a love of God. But on other occasions the attack represents atheistic attitudes directed from without.
How do we feel about views that are intended to discredit the deep desire to know God? For instance, how do we respond to an increasingly aggressive thrust of dialectical materialism? Consider this statement that for over a century has unfortunately come to symbolize the attitude—in fact, has virtually become doctrine—of millions toward those who search for God: "Religion ... is the opium of the people."Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's "Philosophy of Right," quoted in Great Treasury of Western Thought, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, eds. (New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1977), p. 1276.
dialectical materialism. The Marxian interpretation of reality, viewing matter as the sole subject of change and all change as the product of a constant conflict between opposites arising from the internal contradictions inherent in all things.
The American Heritage Dictionary
We might be tempted simply to brush aside such rubbish because we know—we've experienced—the profound awakening and thoroughly rousing effect that true religion has on consciousness. But if we're wise, we'll recognize that such words can be more than mere accusation or sarcasm. When developed and promoted as a truism by their believers, the belief becomes a malpractice, mental ill will, directed toward those who are praying for a purer discernment of God. Hence the necessity of defending the legitimate purpose of religion and what it can mean to those hearts longing for Truth.
What specifically can be done? We can be alert to confront and crowd out any dullness, any haziness or fuzziness, that would creep into a vivid understanding of spiritual truths. We can challenge a mentally drugged or apathetic attitude that would infringe on study intended to clarify our view of God. We will vigorously reject the subtle suggestion to doze during those activities designed to sharpen our spiritual senses. Through our love of God we overturn the lie that would defile or corrupt the rightful purpose of religion. And we'll counter the suggestion that the malpractice could also find fulfillment in the form of an inverse suggestion: "Opiates are the religion of the people."
Scientific religion plays host to the Christ—rousing us to God's presence. In a message to her Church, Mrs. Eddy encouraged a rallying of human thought: "Many sleep who should keep themselves awake and waken the world."Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 17. And the Apostle Paul stirred his listeners with the promise, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."Eph. 5:14.
Neither an individual nor an entire society can have spiritual sense silenced by the aggressive suggestions of animal magnetism when God is recognized as infinite Spirit, a liberating power, an invigorating substance.
Spiritually scientific religion carries the very opposite of a soporific influence. Instead of sedating thought, it wakens and exhilarates the honest searcher for God. As one comes to understand the Christ, he begins to see why the pure-minded religionist is so enlivened, so stimulated, as he prays to embrace the truth. The Christ is the presence in human consciousness of divine enlightenment; it is the message of Truth surfacing in thought, revealing man's innate freedom, goodness, purity. As the Christ, Truth, grows clearer, louder, we discern God's creation of perfection and man's flawless expression of God. This is a religious experience. It is a profoundly Christian experience. And it is spiritually scientific, quickening and animating us.
Moses felt this ringing presence of God's Christ, and as a result, he was spiritually awake enough to receive the truth that man has only one true God. This truth has had a shattering effect on drowsy materialistic thinking. Jesus' life and actions embodied the vitalizing presence of the Christ. He lived and demonstrated Christ so fully that, in the ascension, all evidence of materiality disappeared. Today each of us has the opportunity, the necessity, to begin waking from the coma of materialism. Religion, to the extent it is imbued with the Christ, encourages the recognition of God's allness and stirs us into active demonstration.
As we allow the Christ thoroughly to embrace our consciousness, we will more quickly cure illness, free sinners, and finally raise the dead. Such religious actions are a very long distance from the sluggishness and slumberings of materialism. They illustrate thought awakened.
