The very first Christian Science church I ventured into was in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. I attended a Sunday service there with a friend who had grown up in Christian Science. I was captivated by what I heard. When we came out, my friend asked me, “Well, what did you think?” I thought for a moment and then blurted out the idea that had most struck me from the service: “. . . man is not material; he is spiritual!” (Science and Health, p. 468). To me, this meant that I didn’t have to think of myself as a fleshly body animated by a spirit; I could instead see myself as wholly spiritual and innocent. My friend smiled knowingly, and as we walked away I thought to myself, what a simple but inspiring idea!
As I began studying Christian Science, I soon discovered that truly understanding and “owning” this idea was going to take some practice. After all, I’d grown up in a world engulfed in the belief that life is in matter. I was “born” to my parents, frequently had illnesses and injuries as a child, had been educated in material theories and concepts, and was taught from an early age that “seeing is believing.”
This last point, interestingly, is the basis for most modern-day sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and so on), which are firmly rooted on the principle of observation: that only is real that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt. This concept so permeates our society today that virtually all our systems—-education, health care, politics, communications, economics, law, and business—as well as many religions, are founded on it.
