The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-11-28
nOn.GatbcIit Queries, and Enswers Cbereto
(San Francisco Monitor.)


can you in the face of such overwhelming evil
dence deny the many cures wrought by Christian
Scientists?
The Catholic church regards Christian Science,
with denial of person god distinct from the
universe, the divinitv Of Jesus Christ, and every
Christian dogma, as an essentially pagan system.
Discovered in 1866 by Mrs. Eddy of Boston, it was
given to the world in 1875 "he final revelation
of the absolute principle of scientific being and
of healing" in her work 'Science and Health, with
Key to the Scriptures" (Joseph Armstrong, Bos-
ton, ed. 1901).
Christian Science is very striking example of
that inevitable tendency toward unbelief that char
acterizes the Protestant principle of private inter
pretation; for while pretending, with many an
other false prophet Mark xiii 22) that the Bible
is her 'sole teacher, guide and textbook Opp viii
4, 20), Mrs. Eddy perverts Its meaning at every
step, and while quoting Its words she gives them,
without any warrtn whatsoever, a meaning which
will agree with her irrational mingling of Ideasm
Manicheism and Panthesm The divinity of Christ
Is absolutely Denied and his divine gospel becomes
mere system of metaphysical healing Opp 80, 346
1863, 47S, 574, etc). After reading Mrs. Eddy's
book from cover to cover, one wonders how any
rational man could ever believe with
out the shadow of proof IN a pretended prophet
claiming absolute obedience, who cures by the mere
reading of book, by absent treatment, func-
tional or organic diseases (p. 135, II, 49, 43).
Much of the book is unintelligble; and therefore
its author tells us that we may not hope to fathom
comprehensive: "There is no physical science.
Matter is nothing but mortal belief. Man is the
compound idea of God. Gender is a quality,
characteristic of mind not matter. Electricity is
not a vital fluid, but the least material form of
Elusive consciousness material mindedness" (pp
q, 19, All, etc..
Here are a few specimens of the new logic: "If
drugs are part of Gods creation then drugs can
not be poisonous. If we live after death and are
immortal, must have lived before birth. If the
soul snned it would be mortal. You say boil
Is painful; but that Is impossible, for matter with
out mind is not painful" opp. so, 427 464. 47).
Mrs. Eddy refuses to be called pantheist but
her own words convict her, if words mean any
thing: There can be but one Mind because there
IS but God. In one sense God is identical with
nature. Soul or spirit signifies deity and nothing
else. There is no finite soul spirit There Is but
one mind or intelligence. God, Spirit, being all
nothing Is matter. Science reveals nothing spirit
out Of which to create matter All is mind and
mind is God, soul is God, Interchangeable, eternal"
opp. 465, 13 462, 112, Z, 174).
She holds the old Manchean doctrine that the
material world is evil, and that therefore God is
not its creator: "To regard God as the creator of
matter is not only to make him responsible for all
disasters, physical and moral but to announce him
as their source" (p. 10; cf. 546, ia, 81.
She renders religion impossible by denying
personal God distinct from the universe the exist
ence of soul in the body, free will sin, etc. "The
great mistake of mortals is to suppose that man is
both matter and spirit. Soul or spirit signifies
deity and nothing else. VIII power is but an IL
lusOn of beief-the delusion of sin" (pp. 112 462,
4S6. 100. 469).
She denies every fundamental dogma of Chris
tanity, V. g, the Trinity the divinity of Jesus
Christ the fact of original and actual SIM the re-
demptlon, the existence of a divine society to
preach the Gospel. the sacramental system, the ne
cessity of faith grace, prayer, fasting, the resur
rectlon Of the body, the last Judgment, angels
devils eternal punishment
"The theory of three persons in one God. l. e.,
a personal Trinity, or tri-unity, suggests heath~n
gods. Jesus was the highest human concept of a
perfect man. He was not divine but a mere healer
of the sick; the legend of the serpent. myth.
dream narrative, sin is delusion. That Gods
wrath should be visited upon his beloved son is
divinely unnatural. Such theory is man-made
Christianity as Jesus taught it was not creed
The true science of God and man is no more super
natural than is the science of numbers Our Lords
first article of faith healing. Our Baptism is
publication from all error. Our Eucharist is a
spiritual communion with the one God. Faith is
the acceptance of Christian Science. The ,'new
man of Scripture is a Christian Scientist Au-
dbe prayer can never do the work of divine under
standing; prayer Is unnecessary the All has al
ready decreed what is good for us Fasting is a
senseess belief, the belief that material bodies re-
turn to dust here after rise up spiritual bodies is
incorrect. No final judgment awaits mortals.
Angels are not messengs but messages
Of the true idea of divinity. Evil or devil is not
mind, is not truth, but Hell is mortal belief
error, remorse, hatred" Opp. 152, sos, ATS 32 523
519, 154 10o 49, 46S 23S 327, 90, 1872 467, 5 SO.
$40, 1884, 1885, $40, 1S7, 1875, 465, etc).
Her denial of the evidence of the senses. the
reality of matter, the facts gained by medical sci
ence and surgery, the utter lack of coherency and
system in her many contradictory statements prove
her system to be unscientfc as it is irreligious
and anti-C Christian. "What term the five phvs-
cal senses are simply beliefs of mortal mind When
an accident happens < declare Won are not |
hurt and you viii find the ensuing good effects to
be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics
and your fidelity to God. The corporeal senses are
the only sources of evil or error. Christian Sci
ence explains all cause and effect as mental not
physical. There is physical science One dis
ease Is no more real than another. All disease is
cured by mind Belief is all that ever enables /
drug to cure mortal ailments. What is termed dis
ease does not exist Science can heal the sick who
are absent from their healer Where there are few
doctors and less thought is given sanitary sub
jects there will be better constitutions and less dis
ease Opp. 179, $685. 4S5, Z. q, 90, 81, 81, I'D.
How account for the growth of Christian Sci
ence Its followers are recruited for the most part
from the ranks OF those indifferentist or unbe-
leving Protestants who, ignorant of the first prin-
cples Of Christianity the ready victims of any
new teaching. Again, this new phase of modern
unbelief allows the unthinking mind to call itself
Christian, while at the same time it does not de-
mand the acceptance of the doctrines or moral