The founder of this magazine, Mary Baker Eddy, once described “Christian” and “Science” as the “two largest words in the vocabulary of thought” (No and Yes, p. 10). She was uniquely aware of the link between science and Christianity. She knew that the Christianity taught by Jesus could be proved by healing—and thereby proved scientific—and she also knew that the grandest ideas of material science offered glimpses of the underlying spiritual reality. She affirmed, for instance, that “suns and planets teach grand lessons” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 240).
Often, however, the material world would suggest that science and Christianity are at odds. Yet occasionally, there are moments when a leap forward in physical science is so momentous—so bearing the fingerprints of limitless divine Mind, God—that its spiritual resonances are unavoidable. This is the story of one such example, and of how understanding those resonances can help strengthen the spiritual seeker to see beyond the picture the five senses present—and in so doing, to heal.
This is the story of light. Albert Einstein was fascinated by light. As a boy, he wondered what the universe would look like if he could saddle a beam of starlight and ride it across the expanse of space. As a man, he was convinced that light marked the limits of physics—moving with a speed that nothing else could surpass. Today, this premise remains foundational to science.
