Both ancient and modern history have shown what ultimately happens to widely believed yet mistaken concepts. Absolute facts slowly erode them until they finally crumble.
In ancient Greece, for instance, it was generally thought that Mount Olympus was inhabited by gods with names like Zeus, Athena, and Apollo. Suppose, just for fun, you could somehow travel back in time to ancient Athens. Imagine speaking with people there who believed that these gods not only were real but actually governed daily events. If you tried to explain to them that the gods were just myths, you’d likely be ridiculed, or worse.
And then, what if you went so far as to introduce the concept of God as a single divine Spirit? You would probably get an argument like this: “The gods of Olympus must exist! All my friends talk about them every day. I see statues of them everywhere. So many people can’t be wrong! Why should I believe what you say when every person I know thinks so differently from you?”
Ultimately humanity will discover that we’re not so much matter-like as we are Godlike.
The pressure to conform to the way other people beheld the world would definitely be strong. Anyone growing up in ancient Athens, even if aware of other cultures’ perspectives, would certainly be tempted to believe in a Greek god or two. It’s not like he or she would necessarily make a formal decision to believe in myths; it’s just that the mental suggestion that they are real would always be there.
Now let’s consider our current era. Are there modern instances of mythology? In light of how today’s society perceives us all, here is a striking statement made by the Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy: “The mortality of man is a myth, for man is immortal” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 545–546).
This declaration is just as confrontational to many inhabitants of today’s world as a declaration about Greek gods being myths would have been to ancient Athenians. Man an immortal? Isn’t that going too far? Sure, the Bible says, “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) and “God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). But those statements were made so very long ago. Each of us as God’s image, therefore completely spiritual—without even a single molecule of matter? Then what is it that people actually are? Myths?
Man is anything but a myth, though a modern mythology has grown around our culture’s beliefs about man’s nature. Yet even if we are convinced that man is composed of matter, ultimately humanity will discover that we’re not so much matter-like as we are Godlike. God, Spirit, expresses divine qualities in man, so man is spiritual, not material. Christian Science reveals that just as God is free from physicality 100 percent of the time, man as His image is always free from physicality too. “Human philosophy has made God manlike. Christian Science makes man Godlike,” Science and Health explains (p. 269).
We get off track when we turn to the five physical senses to learn of our nature. Instead of looking at what appears as material, flawed creation, we can turn to God in prayer and discern that real creation is actually spiritual and perfect, just as the creator is.
Will society help you break free from the widespread, imposing belief in the myth that we are existing minute by minute as mortals? Not likely. Just as ancient Greeks were convinced of the existence of gods on Olympus, people today are very much convinced that man’s existence begins in dust, goes along on a timeline, and then ends in dust. This matter and time combination is not only believed to be authentic but actually thought to govern and be fatal to man.
So then, why should anyone believe what Jesus said two thousand years ago—or what Christian Science says today—about the intact presence of spiritual, perfect God and man, when most of the billions of people on the planet believe otherwise? Because the Science of Christianity is provable. What separates it from legends and folklore is that when we understand God as Jesus understood Him—as our loving Father who cares unfailingly for His creation—we can heal. Scientific Christianity leads the world away from myths into the perception of spiritual facts. This magazine is filled with examples of individuals healed and uplifted when they learned the truth of man’s eternal, spiritual identity.
At some point in history, mankind will marvel at how widespread this myth of mortality was. People will look at it in the same way that we now look back at Greek and Roman myths. Science and Health states, “As the mythology of pagan Rome has yielded to a more spiritual idea of Deity, so will our material theories yield to spiritual ideas, until the finite gives place to the infinite, sickness to health, sin to holiness, and God’s kingdom comes ‘in earth, as it is in heaven’ ” (p. 339).
St. Paul spoke of the social pressure to conform to current ways of thinking, even when they’re based on fiction rather than fact. He wrote to the Romans, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).
That counsel surely made sense centuries ago, and it makes just as much sense now. To allow thought to be in conformity with God is answered prayer. Why? Because doing this debunks myths and reveals reality. It dispels mythological depictions of a defective man. No matter how many people believe in myths, they’re still completely unreal. And we don’t have to fear the unreal. We don’t have to repair it. We don’t have to fight it. We just destroy belief in it by acknowledging the real. That’s what it means to “be not conformed to this world.”
To resist societal pressure and turn to the truth takes commitment. Science and Health says, “To obey the Scriptural command, ‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate,’ is to incur society’s frown; but this frown, more than flatteries, enables one to be Christian” (p. 238). Sometimes Jesus would go off on his own and spend time communing with God. It was a private, inspiring time. He encouraged his followers to do the same (see Matthew 6:6).
While we may not be able to set aside several days to commune with God, we certainly can spend beautiful moments listening for and drinking in the truth of God and His perfect creation. It will help us resist that unconscious social pressure. When the world, through ridicule or entrenched beliefs in myths, tries to forbid our embrace of the truths of perfect God and perfect, spiritual creation, we can allow our love for God to strengthen us.
Scientific Christianity leads the world away from myths into the perception of spiritual facts.
We can let our love for infinite good, God, simply glow in consciousness until doubt evaporates and we become completely sure that God is omnipotent. Completely sure that all is divine Mind and its manifestation. Completely sure that under the law of God all things work together for good. Completely sure that spiritual perfection is the only condition of man. No wonder David prayed, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” (Psalms 23:6).
“We need the spirit of St. Paul, when he stood on Mars’ hill at Athens, bringing Christianity for the first time into Europe,” Mrs. Eddy observed (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, pp. 344–345). In Athens, Paul was in the minority, yet he was right and he knew it. The current era in world history has many parallels to those ancient times. Watch not to be conformed to our world’s widely believed but mistaken concepts of reality.
At some point, everyone will look exclusively to God for inspiration and truth. The widespread myths depicting us all as feeble mortals will melt, and we will know and feel that we each are God’s manifestation, and therefore perfectly spiritual. Despite social pressures, we can lead the way, moving forward prayerfully, moment by moment, one thought at a time in conformity with God.
