BUFFETED BY EVERYTHING from random suicide bombings to carefully coordinated attacks, nations around the world are struggling to find answers to the threat of terrorism. Protected by murky return addresses and having little stake in the status quo, terrorist groups all too easily circumvent traditional methods of containment. Moreover, the scope of terrorist threats has decentralized and expanded exponentially, so much so that not just rogue regimes, but any one or few of the 6.7 billion people who share the planet now have the potential to cause major societal disruptions. Many governments worry that, under these circumstances, their capacity to protect against political and religious extremism is severely limited.
But there is another way of looking at the issue of terrorism that challenges the presumed inevitability of global violence. By revealing man's spiritual nature (meaning both men and women), Christian Science brings the promise of healing not only to individuals but to a discordant world as well. Defying the notion that evil is supreme and that man is vulnerable to its wicked designs, Christian Science provides the assurance of ultimate safety and immunity from harm.
Terrorism is catalyzed by many things: cultural alienation; frustration—sometimes legitimate—stemming from thwarted national or ethnic ambitions; radical political and religious doctrines. But the underlying cause of terrorism is the pernicious belief that man can be governed by hatred and subject to violent impulses. Christian Science, to the contrary, explains that the only real catalyst to human action is the Christ, that which Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, described as the "divine influence ever present in human consciousness" (Science and Health, p. xi).
