To strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea.
—MARY BAKER EDDY
IN A WAY, IT'S NOT A NEW DEBATE. Who created the universe, and how? Recently, however, this age-old discussion has seen a novel twist—the theory of intelligent design, which is making its way into classrooms, much to some scientists' chagrin. This new take on the origins of the universe even sparked a lawsuit in Dover, Pennsylvania, where Christian conservatives and scientists and educators found themselves facing off in a federal district court this fall. The case involved a lawsuit against the local school district, which had decided to teach intelligent design as an alternative theory to evolution in the ninth-grade biology curriculum. The plaintiffs contended that doing so violates the constitution's provision for a separation of Church and State. Allegedly at stake are the minds of children, who would learn what some call a new breed of creationism along with what is thought to be the more scientific theory of evolution.
Intelligent design adherents believe that life here on earth is too complex to have occurred spontaneously, so it must have been deliberately shaped by a superior intelligence. On the other side are those who believe that this is a repackaging of creationism and obligates science instructors to teach their students about God. One science historian went so far as to claim that if intelligent design were taken seriously as a part of science, it could signal the death of science as we know it. Still others wonder if the walls erected between science and religion are necessary at all, since there should be room for both.
This topic has been ardently thrashed out for many decades and promises no easy solutions. In fact, given the unbridgeable chasm between Spirit and matter and between religion and science as most in the world perceive them, it's hard to imagine that the intelligent design/evolution debate will ever be solved in the current context of the argument. Both sides, and those in between, agree that matter is not only real, but that it defines life as we know it. This, one could say, is the real obstacle to settling the debate. Sure, it's possible to see how the arguments are spun if one relies on observations of the five physical senses, but do these senses provide a dependable gauge regarding the nature of life and its progression?
Even among scientists, there is skepticism about whether or not matter is what it appears. On the first of this year, Edge.org, an Internet think tank, posed the following question to 120 intellectuals: "What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" One thinker revealed, "I believe that consciousness and its contents are all that exists. Spacetime, matter and fields never were the fundamental denizens of the universe but have always been, from their beginning, among the humbler contents of consciousness, dependent on it for their very being." Donald Hoffman, The Edge Annual Question—2005, www.edge.org/q2005/q05_4.html#hoffman.
In order to fully and finally settle the debate about how life as we know it came to be, the real demand is to rethink the true substance of the universe. The physical sciences base their theories on a strictly material record of creation, but so do intelligent design or creationist proponents, who see the material world as evidence of the creation stories recorded in Genesis 1 and 2.
Here's where Christian Science has something new to offer. It recognizes Spirit as the divine Principle that governs a spiritual universe according to law. And because Spirit is All and the only cause, matter, as Spirit's opposite, has no place in this universe. Instead, Spirit's creation is very much like its Creator—both infinite and eternal—so progress is defined in terms of revelation rather than mutation. In other words, infinite dimensions of a creation coexistent with its divine source are constantly revealed according to law, not by some inexplicable anomaly.
To understand the true nature and substance of life, one's starting point is of paramount importance. Both advocates of intelligent design and evolution, I believe, get off track because they start with matter as effect and attempt to reason back to cause. But the problem is that since matter, by its very nature, is flawed, the supposed cause would have to be so, too. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, articulated this point in her most significant text, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, when she wrote: "Matter is an error of statement. This error in the premise leads to errors in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters." Science and Health, p. 277. Further, she perceived, "Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being." And over the course of her life she proved repeatedly that "matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit." Ibid., p. 264. This observation points to the fact that not only is the fundamental medium for analysis by both advocates of intelligent design and of evolution flawed from the outset, but so is their lens of evaluation. Viewing life through the lens of matter will always create great divisions between religion and science, because each will have strongly held beliefs regarding formation and progression, and neither will be satisfied with what is deemed the other's faulty reasoning. But reconciliation of science with religion will come when we elect to look through the lens of Spirit to see that spiritual creation meets the test of both science and religion: This creation is the handiwork of a supremely intelligent designer who is divine Mind itself, and from this Mind proceeds all law, including the law of progress.
The significance of recognizing the allness of Spirit, God, and the nothingness of matter should not be underestimated. Direct and persistent application of these points to a whole host of human conditions has brought favorable—even what some term miraculous—results.
The significance of recognizing the allness of Spirit, God, and the nothingness of matter should not be underestimated. Endowing matter with life, substance, and intelligence opens the door for catastrophic storms, pandemic diseases, bondage to substance abuse, unbridled sensuality, and even death. But denying that it possesses life, substance, and intelligence reduces matter to its native nothingness—illusion—and allows for Spirit to become what it already is—All and only. Direct and persistent application of these two "cardinal points" See Ibid., p. 52. to a whole host of human conditions has brought favorable—even what some term miraculous—results. Medically incurable diseases have been healed, shortened limbs have been strengthened and lengthened, tornadoes have been turned, moral deficiencies eliminated, financial losses restored, and testy relationships harmonized. Some of these accounts are narrated in the last 100 pages of Science and Health, but numerous other examples of the efficacy of turning from matter to Spirit as the source of life, intelligence, and substance have appeared during the past 100-plus years in the pages of this magazine and its sister publications.
The acknowledgment of the supremacy of Spirit and the denial of the veracity of matter actually dates back at least 6,000 years to various acts observed or performed in direct opposition to the so-called laws of matter. Many enlightened thinkers—such as Moses, Elisha, and Christ Jesus and his followers—proved that counterfeit laws are supplanted by the higher law of Spirit. As a result, otherwise inexplicable occurrences took place—occurrences such as an ax head that floated in water, a sea that was parted, storms that abated, bread that appeared from the sky, loaves and fish multiplied, diseases cured, lives lengthened, and death overcome. Most importantly, Christ Jesus' resurrection and ascension marked the greatest record of the affirmation of Spirit and the denial of matter, proving that God, not matter, has the last word when it comes to Life and immortality.
To an individual focused on matter, these acts not only appear miraculous but even seem beyond the realm of reason, because they deviate from mankind's definition of physical laws. But to the spiritually-minded, they are natural occurrences based on divine law. Matter-based thinking sets down limitations one assumes must be heeded, but Spirit-based thinking lifts these limitations and allows one to live freely and fearlessly.
If the sole Creator is divine Spirit, then the fundamental substance of the entire universe is strictly spiritual. And since Spirit, God, is the Principle that is the only lawmaker, possessing all power, presence, action, and Science, its expression must manifest and operate in harmony with its source. The nature of this source is Life, Love, Mind, Soul, and Truth—other names for God. And this divine nature is expressed in Spirit's formation as vitality, strength, substance, illimitability, intelligence, grace, mercy, beauty, harmony, and so on. Spirit as cause holds everything real in its grasp, so its effect must be perfect in every way. In other words, Spirit is the divine Mind that shapes and governs the spiritual universe in perfect harmony. The degree to which any of us comes to understand Spirit and its law allows us to favorably apply it to circumstances we're facing.
At a strictly material level, science and Christianity may always seem at odds, but once both are elevated to the level where one perceives Spirit as cause and spiritual creation as effect, the native agreement between them becomes clear.
On the other hand, matter is nothing more than a false perception, an illusion or mirage, regarding Life itself. Its source is a suppositional mind—called mortal mind, or a brain—that appears to construct its own set of beliefs. In actual fact, it can't even construct these beliefs, because neither matter nor this so-called mind is real. Their only record of reality is false testimony.
Furthermore, matter is its own witness. So if one refuses to rely on the five physical senses as evidence, nothing remains to witness matter. The greatest shortcoming of matter is that it attempts to challenge the power and presence of Spirit, God. It can't, of course, but when one buys into matter's so-called power and presence, this belief hampers one's experience until he or she wakes up to see what's real. It might even cause the individual to change his course if he doesn't perceive what's authentic in place of what's illusory.
While matter will never provide satisfying answers to questions about life and the universe, because thought focused on matter can't expand beyond its inherent limits to see the bigger picture, turning from the persistent and pernicious testimony of the material senses to the evidence of spiritual sense causes our horizons to broaden exponentially. Then we'll begin to see that Spirit links all of creation together in one grand harmony, and we'll discover facets of that creation that we've never known about. As Mrs. Eddy put it: "As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness." Ibid., p. 264.
At a strictly material level, science and Christianity may always seem at odds, but once both are elevated to the level where one perceives Spirit as cause and spiritual creation as effect, the native agreement between them becomes clear. In Mrs. Eddy's words: "It has been said, and truly, that Christianity must be Science, and Science must be Christianity, else one or the other is false and useless; but neither is unimportant or untrue, and they are alike in demonstration. This proves the one to be identical with the other." Ibid., p. 135. This natural affinity is founded on Spirit as the sole cause—the basis of all true scientific thinking and Christianity. As we realize this, virulent debates regarding the origin and natural progression of life will fall of their own weight, and the true nature of God and the universe will appear.
