A healthy environment for all is a lofty goal, one that is being seriously considered by many today. And it is becoming increasingly apparent to thinkers around the globe that achieving environmental justice demands spiritual growth.
Spiritual development includes the daily living of Godlike qualities, which helps us to prove the actual nature of existence to be pure and good, entirely spiritual. The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, cites the qualities of "humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance," Science and Health, p. 115. as the moral, transitional elements of thought associated with the disappearance of evil. Spiritual growth, then, demands a higher expression of humanity. Such growth prepares us to accept the scientific fact that the universe is governed by spiritual, not by material laws and that these laws are just. This change in human consciousness enables us to understand what is "really real" and thereby to learn how to improve the environment.
Invisible to the material senses, perfect, divine reality must be perceived through spiritual sense, our inherent capacity to understand God and His goodness. This sense is cultivated as we grow spiritually. It enables us to discern man's true nature to be at one with God, divine Spirit, not through absorption, but through reflection of Deity. And it helps us understand God's government of His creation to be impartial and beneficent.
