The Christian Science Question - No. 2
One of the major beliefs of Christian Science is the doctrine of "the futility or uselessness of sensations as received through the five senses." Mrs. Eddy stated, "The ear does not really hear." (Science and Health, 213:17) Thus, if one happened to lose his ears, with all the hearing apparatus that constitutes them, and at the same time should become deaf, if would be a mere coincidence; there is no causative relation! If one stopped his ears, it would not mean that he could not hear; if he closed his eyes, it would not mean that he could not see; for the eyes and the ears have nothing to do with seeing and hearing!
Christ said, "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear." (Matt. 13:15, 16.) Christ affirmed that the eye did see, and the ear did hear. Mrs. Eddy said, "The ear does not really hear." Whom will you believe?
A further quotation from Mrs. Eddy, "The objects recognized by the physical senses have not the reality of substance. They are only what mortal belief calls them." (Ibid 311:26) The Bible then is not a reality, because its knowledge comes to us through the medium of the senses. Nor is faith a reality; for faith comes by hearing. (Rom. 10:17.) If this doctrine is true, then why do Christian Scientists send men out to teach their doctrine by lectures? Why print books and periodicals? Why assemble on the Lord's Day to read and study Science and Health, the Bible, and other books? Why carry on a radio program over various stations? If the eye cannot see and the ear cannot hear, and if these instruments are incapable of accurately transmitting to the human mind the words and ideas presented through the radio and the spoken word and the printed page, then why use them.
The doctrine, in its simplest terms, is simply this: Books do not exist. If they did exist, the eye could not see them, the hand could not touch them, the nose could not smell them, the mouth could not taste them, and the ear could not hear the words read from them!
Unreality Of Obvious Phenomena
A doctrine that logically follows the doctrines of the non-existence of matter and the futility of die senses is the denial of obvious reality. Mrs. Eddy says, "Matter and its effects, sin, sickness, and death. . . are not facts of mind They are not ideas but illusions." (Science and Health 283:9-11.) Again, "What is termed disease does not exist." (Ibid 188:3) Further, "Sickness is a growth of error springing from man's ignorance." (188: 21) "Man is never sick; for Mind is not sick and matter cannot be." (393:29) Then she states, "Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has neither birth nor death." (244:23, 24) And then this gem, "Decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of nature, but an illusion." (245:30, 31)
Admitting non-existence of matter and the uselessness of sensation, we might concede the unreality of sin, sickness, and death. For disease, including disability and the pain that goes with it, is but the word we use to describe some abnormal condition of the organs of the body; sin is the misuse or abuse of the natural proclivities; and death is a complete stoppage of all the natural functions. If there is no matter, there is no body, either normal or abnormal; there is no ceasing of the functions of that body; there can be no sickness; no death. Yet, in the face of Mrs. Eddy's claim to such a state, we have these positive declarations from God's word: "Hezekiah was sick unto death" (II Kings 20:1) ; "They brought to him a man sick of the palsy" (Matt. 9:2); Dorcas "was sick and died" (Acts 9:37) ; "Lazarus was sick" (Jno. 11:2) ; "All flesh died that moved on the face of the earth" (Gen. 7:21) ; "Lazarus is dead" (Jno. 11:14) ; "The beggar died: the rich man also died," (Luke 16:22) ; "Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6); "It is appointed unto men once to die." (Heb. 9:27.)
Take Your Choice
That matter does exist, and that sin, sickness, and death are realities is obvious to all. Even Christian Scientists find themselves unable to completely get around such obvious facts. For example, we notice the following in Mrs. Eddy's "Church Manual" (page 47), "If a member of this church has a patient whom he does not heal, and whose case he cannot fully diagnose, he may consult with an M. D. on the anatomy involved. And it shall be the privilege of a Christian Scientist to confer with an M. D. on Ontology, or the science of being." Thus, on the one hand, Mrs. Eddy states that the body does not exist, and that the "science of being" is an error and a delusion; and, on the other hand, she says that when one of her practitioners fails to heal a patient, he may consult with an M. D. on these things!
Mrs. Eddy states that there is no body, there is no death; then she reverses herself in these words, "If a member of the Mother Church shall decease (they won't come right out and say "die", so beat around the bush with a synonym for it—T. A. R.) suddenly without any previous injury or illness, and the cause thereof be unknown, an autopsy shall be made by qualified experts. When it is possible the body of a female shall be prepared for burial by one of her own sex." Here Mrs. Eddy admits three things: (1) the existence of a body, (2) the existence of sex in the flesh, and (3) the existence of a place, material, in which to bury the body that doesn't exist!
Thus Christian Science on the one hand denies obvious phenomena, and on the other hand admits it. They know not where they go. One can make his own choice as to whether he believes them when they deny it, or believes them when they admit it.