How often we find ourselves counting, measuring, and calculating numbers to answer a question, solve a problem, or describe a situation. Numbers permeate so many facets of life, from measuring personal health, to calculating how much time or money we have, to the state of the climate, to name just a few.
Yet, more than 100 years ago, the founder of this magazine, Mary Baker Eddy, cautioned readers about the downsides of certain kinds of data use. In the Christian Science textbook she wrote, “Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 246).
This passage points out what is problematic about relying on numbers to measure our prospects: Numbers often represent limitation and lead to a constrained sense of goodness, life, health, supply, and even beauty. So instead of looking at material measurements, we can turn to an understanding of God as divine Principle to strengthen our conviction that both beauty and goodness exist without measure.
