To some extent our lives are defined, or at least affected, by religious ideas. Many Christians adopt the viewpoint given in the second chapter of Genesis that man was created materially perfect by God, and then original sin brought man down into imperfection.
Christian Science adopts the viewpoint given in the first chapter of Genesis that man was created spiritually—and was created perfect, as God is perfect. And it sees the story of man’s fall from perfection as describing the myth of a material sense of creation, and the sufferings that arise from believing that mistaken view. God, perfect Life, forever uninterrupted, and man as His expression, is viewed as true, not as a myth.
And so some see man as created perfect and remaining perfect. As Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures says, “Everything in God’s universe expresses Him” (p. 331). But others see man as fallen, and creation in a state where perfection needs to be regained. Those are two very different views! Consider for a moment the first view. When we think of God creating man permanently perfect, are we saying that God started us out perfect and then keeps us perfect? If so, then we need to correct our perspective.
