The Denver Jewish news. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-1925, 1919-08-20
Jews and Christian
Science
HOW CHRISTIAN SCIENCE DIE.
rERS FROM RATIONAL RELlGIO,l
By SAMUEL. N. DElNARD.


Christian Science textbook passages
of the same or similar import. The
whole system with all its propositions
is derived from the following prem
ises: God is good, and God is All
mall"
God is good, God is Spirit, ETC. On
that all religions agree. But, as to
God is All-in-All," rational religion
and common sense philosophy demur.
| The world as we know it, the world
around us, is surely not God. God
may be above the world, in the world,
permeating and surrounding the world,
but we can not say that the world as
we know it is God. 1t is simply playing
4 fast and loose with words to do SO.
1t is easy enough to pile up such
| propositions as these: God is ALL
mail; God is Spirit; All is Spirit;
there is no matter" But where is the
! sense in it all? Tell us first what
\ you mean by matter, and what you
mean by spirit, and then see if you
can make anything out Of those pre-
pOsterous statements.
God is good, God is spirit, love,
etc" Granted. That is what our re-
1 ligion teaches, what orthodox Christ
unity and liberal Christianity, and
other faiths teach. Now, what fol
lows? According to Christian Science,
If God is All-in-All, Mind, Spirit,
therefore, all is mind, matter is I'M
real, and sin and disease are unreal.
etc" Not ut ALL" says rational re-
! ligion Assuming that God is all that
we claim He is: still. He has created
the material world just as it is, with
its good and its evil, just as we act
ually experience it. Why: Many
/ answers may be given to that ques-
ton. and are given by theoOgians and
philosophers. We are in this world on
| probation. We are to fight evil and
TO overcome it. We are to cooperate
with God in improving and perfecting
His world. We are to learn to he
patient and good, and to be reconciled
to Him even in the midst of trials.
! And, finally, we must confess that
there is great deaf of mystery in
the divine rule of the werid which we
can not fathom.
That is probably the best answer of
all. We do not understand Gods plan.
We do not know why He has created
! death-dealing poisons, destructive rep
tiles and animals, and raging elements
/ that cause ruin and death. We do not
know why He. has so ordered His
world, that life, to sustain itself. must
feed on life, so that some animal must
be destroyed in order that another ami
NAL may live. The lamb is destroyed
I by the wolf, and the wolf by man
and so thruout all creation. What is
Gods purpose in doing or allowing it
all? We do not know. Long, long
ago Hebrew sage exclaimed: "Cansi
thou by searching find out God2 CanS
thou find out the Almighty unto per-
fection? (. If he cut off, and shut
up, or gather together, then who can
hinder him?'' We may with the poet
reassure ourselves that somehow good
will result from ILL.,"
Such are religions answers. At any
rate, to satisfy our definition of God,
we do not try to deny or ignore our
actual experiences, the real facts of
lie and the world. We try to explain
them. and to reconcile them with our
theology as best we can,
Christian Science, to he consistent,
should argue in this manner: God
is good =. evil is not real. Titanic
and Volturno disasters, that in brief
moment destroy hundreds of human
lives, rob women of their husbands. or
children of their mothers, break so
many hearts. and plunge nation in
grief. are not real. for there is no evil.
Droughts and failure of crops in India
or China. where millions must starve
and die of famine, are not real. Floods.
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions with
resultant death and devastation are not
real" Nothing is real but Mrs. Eddy,
her textbook. and the healers. But
how do we know that they are real!
God is good, all is mind, all is
good But Christian Science also adj
mits that il is mortal mind that causes
evil, disease, sin, etc, and these. while
they last. are very unpleasant. other-
wise there would be no sense in GO
ing to healer at all. But since God
is allgood. and the universe all mind.
all good, why should there be any