At one time I wondered if I really understood what Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy was showing me when it states, "Deny the existence of matter, and you can destroy the belief in material conditions." Science and Health, p. 368 I recognized that these words were not saying that in denying matter's existence I would somehow wipe myself out—eliminate my present sense of life—for the result of denying matter is healing. I was certainly interested in healing. Great numbers of healings have occurred in Christian Science through realizing the allness of God, Spirit, and denying the existence of matter.
In 1955 a renowned physicist, Dr. Donald H. Andrew of Johns Hopkins University, wrote, "If I could put your body in an imaginary atomic press and squeeze all those atom holes out of it, just as the holes are squeezed out of a sponge, you would get smaller and smaller until, finally, when the last hole was gone, your body would be smaller than the smallest speck of dust." He said further, "Your hands look solid, and feel solid, but they are more full of holes than a wire fence... if, materially, you don't amount to much, what are you?" "Main Currents in Modern Thought," May 1955, quoted in Norman Beasley, Mary Baker Eddy (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1963), p. 54
His comments might lead you to ask yourself, "Why would I look to matter to find out how my day is going to go? Hand, so full of holes, do you think I can do what I need to do with you today? Foot, so full of holes, what do you think? Do you think I can use you today? Skin, so full of holes, do you have the intelligence to interrupt my day? I'll tell you, hand, foot, skin full of holes, you're not going to use me." That physicist's view hints at a basic fact brought out in Christian Science— that matter isn't true substance.
