Part 2
Once more: the reply that man is God-like in every respect except in size, and that the body is a myth, does not help Mrs. Eddy's argument in the least. Real or unreal, the human body, or the belief in it, which causes so much suffering, should have no place in a system founded upon the dogmatic declaration that all is Mind, and all is Good, and all is God. The question remains: Why did Mrs. Eddy make room in this perfect universe for the serpent--mortal mind? As already suggested, without this false belief in materiality Christian Science would have been a useless discovery. Mrs. Eddy was debarred by her creed from admitting the existence of matter; hence she compromised on "a belief in matter," which works just as great a havoc as real matter. This arrangement has given to her army of Christian Science practitioners many (imaginary) ills to heal. Like Don Quixote, Christian Scientists to-day go forth to do battle, even though for enemies they have nothing more formidable than windmills. Physicians treat what they believe to be real maladies; Christian Scientists combat maladies which they say do not exist--that is to say, they fight phantoms.
Not only does the author of _Science and Health_ utterly fail, as all metaphysicians before her have failed, to account for the origin of evil or mortal mind, in a universe created and governed by Infinite Goodness, but her doctrine that man, like the Deity, is free from sickness, etc., involves her in new contradictions. For example, on page 204 (1910 edition) Mrs. Eddy says that "in Christian Science it can never be said that man has a mind of his own, distinct from God, the ALL-Mind"; and more than once she has asserted that man "has neither birth nor death" (p. 244). Of course, this is no more than a theory; but, even as such, Mrs. Eddy makes only a limited application of it--that is to say, she does not follow her theory to its logical consequences. If man has no mind of his own, but is a replica of the Divine mind, why did the Deity make so many copies of himself? Was this self-multiplication of the Divine mind from necessity or from choice? If the former, then necessity was greater than the Deity; if the latter, then man was an accident, since the Deity could just as well not have created him at all, being free to do as he pleased. And if man is a copy of the Deity, why did He reproduce himself more freely among the inferior races--the blacks and the yellows--than among the white peoples?
Again, if man has no mind distinct from the Divine, the _All-Mind_, he ought to have all the attributes of God. God is painless, sinless, deathless; and so is man, according to Mrs. Eddy. But why stop there? God is omniscient; is man omniscient too? Then why does he go to school? God is almighty; is man almighty? Then why does he have to use tools or ask for help? God is omnipresent; why is man dependent upon the means of transportation to go from place to place? How, then, does man, who is not distinct from the _All-Mind_--God, come to possess only one or two of the Divine attributes?
Mrs. Eddy's Prayer
|It is reported of Mrs. Eddy that every morning as she arose from her bed she repeated the following prayer: "Clad in the panoply of Divine love, human hatred cannot reach me." Her followers have expressed great admiration for this, the "Mother's daily prayer." But to be forever thinking of human hatred, and to live in constant dread of it, shows a broken-down mind. Only a person haunted by the fear of human hatred would beg daily to be delivered from it. If on getting up every morning a man were to say, "To-day my liver shall not hurt me," one would have reason to conclude that he was suffering from liver trouble.
To deny human hatred every morning is also proof positive of an alarmed conscience. Macbeth saw Banquo's ghost everywhere and dared it with his "avaunt" and "hence," even as Mrs. Eddy, seeing so much of human hatred, ran under cover of "the Divine panoply" the first thing every morning. Is that the way to prove that "all is mind," and that there is nothing to fear?
Is Christian Science Scientific?
|Two words spell the name of this so-called "health religion"--"Christian" and "Science." Let us see if there is anything scientific about Christian Science. To begin with, men of science never try to suppress inquiry, because inquiry only helps to advance their cause, which can advance in no other way.
Science is investigation. Eddyism, on the other hand, is a dogma.
Science is knowledge, verified, classified, and placed within the reach of all. Eddyism is a _copyrighted_ cult.
Science is free; in science we do not have to secure permission before observing, studying, inventing, or teaching. But Mrs. Eddy reads out of church the independent thinker or practitioner.
Science is open to new truths. Christian Science claims to be a final revelation. For any man or woman to profess to be the custodian of the last word on religion, and then to copyright the same, is not only the negation of all science, which means increasing research and unhampered discovery, but it is also the most objectionable kind of monopoly.
Science always accepts truth for authority, and never authority for truth. Christian Science, on the contrary, rests on the sole authority of Mrs. Eddy's _Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures_.
The fundamental difference between Mrs. Eddy and a scientist like Charles Darwin, for example, is that, while the latter confines himself to such statements as are investigable, Mrs. Eddy puts forth claims which defy investigation. Let me give an example. The founder of Christian Science solemnly declares that even the price she should charge for a course of instruction in metaphysics was dictated to her by the Deity himself: "When God impelled me to set a price on Christian Science--mind healing--I was led to name $300 as the price." And she adds: "This amount greatly troubled me. I shrank from asking it, but was finally led by a strange providence to accept this fee." It must have been a _strange_ providence, indeed! But can a claim of that nature be verified? If we desired to make sure whether the Supreme Being, with the destinies of ten thousand worlds upon His mind, found the time to fix also the dividend rate upon Mrs. Eddy's investment in Christian Science, how would he go about it? How shall we make sure that the Deity did not, on the contrary, plead with her to be satisfied with a more moderate profit?
While in Salt Lake City I enjoyed the opportunity of an interview with a prominent Mormon. Finding me willing to listen, the gentleman told me how Joseph Smith had received a visit from the angels who delivered to him the originals from which were copied the articles of the Mormon belief. When I expressed a desire to see the "heavenly" documents, my informant replied that Joseph Smith had returned them to the angels. Is such a statement investigatable? And what is not investigable lies outside the province of science. Neither Mrs. Eddy nor Joseph Smith can be put in the same class with Charles Darwin, who advances no propositions which forbid verification.
Is Christian Science "Christian"?
|Eddyism is no more _Christian_ than it is _scientific_. Between the teachings of Jesus and those of the Boston lady there are irreconcilable differences.
It is the claim of practitioners in Christian Science that they are following the example and applying the method of the founder of Christianity in the healing of the sick. This is one of the "telling" arguments used by Christian Science lecturers in their appeals for converts. But if it can be shown that the method of Jesus was in many respects radically different from that prescribed by Mrs. Eddy, the claim that her religion is founded upon the teachings and practice of Jesus falls to the ground. In a pamphlet issued by the Christian Science Publication Society and copyrighted we read as follows; "Jesus proved for all time and for all Christendom that the origin of disease was _mental_, and He healed it with _mental medicine_." Can that statement be squared with the practice of Jesus as we find it described in the Gospels? The evangelist St. John relates the cure of the man born blind as follows: "When he [Jesus] had thus spoken, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said unto him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.'" Is that the Christian Science way of healing the sick? Do Christian Scientists use clay or spittle? Do they "anoint" the sick with salve of any kind? Do they counsel bathing or washing for curative purposes?
Moreover, Jesus, in reply to the question of His apostles as to the cause of the man's blindness, clearly states that the origin of this man's disease was not in human error or mentality:--
_And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. (John ix, 2-3.)_
The meaning of this text is that the man was born blind, not as a punishment for his or his parents' sin, nor because of mortal mind, but that through him God may be glorified. Could that text be quoted to show that blindness is a "mental" disease caused by unbelief or selfishness? or could it be quoted to prove that the man was not born blind, but only _thought_ he was blind? Where is the evidence, then, that "Jesus proved for all time and for all Christendom that 'disease was caused by mortal mind,' and that 'mental medicine' was the only remedy he used?"
Was Jesus in the habit of using words to mislead his hearers, of saying things the real meaning of which would remain hidden for nearly twenty centuries--until Mrs. Eddy could place her _key_ (from three to six dollars a key) upon the market?
The evangelist St. Mark gives another instance of Jesus's method of healing which is again totally different from Mrs. Eddy's:--
_And they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and touched his tongue._
Will the Christian Science healers explain the functions of the "hand," the "fingers," and the "spit" in "mental medicine"? If it be answered that Jesus resorted to material means to illustrate the power of the spirit, etc., it would follow that material means may be used to advantage, and that there is no such feud between matter and mind as the Eddyites proclaim.
Many other texts could be quoted to show that Jesus used material means. He touched the bier, he laid his hands on the patient, which is the kind of manipulation vehemently denounced by Mrs. Eddy in her comments on mesmerism. The "touch" so frequent in the miracles performed by Jesus is downright heresy in Mrs. Eddy's system of healing.
_Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them. (Luke iv, 40.)_
Again, Jesus recommends to his disciples dieting by way of abstinence from food--that is, fasting--for the healing of obstinate diseases. Evidently he believed that dieting increased one's healing power.
In the same pamphlet published and copyrighted by the Christian Science Publication Society, the author, William R. Rathbon, member of the Board of Lectureship of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, writes: "He [Jesus] gave himself no concern about physical symptoms... He cared little about what the sick man had been eating, but much about what he had been thinking." In the New Testament, however, nearly every patient's symptoms are described, to which Jesus listened without a word of protest and with apparent consent. Had the evangelists believed, as the Christian Science lecturers teach, that disease is purely mental, they would not have gone into details in describing physical symptoms.
"And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years" (Mark v, 25.) Does not that describe the nature and duration, as well as the physical effects, of the woman's disease?
"Lord, have mercy upon my son, for he is a lunatic" (Matt, xvii, 15).
"And one of the multitude said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son"; and then the father proceeds to describe the symptoms of his son's malady: "He foameth and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away" (Mark ix, 17).
In all these cases there was not a word of rebuke from the great healer because of the symptoms described.
Jesus himself, on one occasion, asked for certain physical details before proceeding to heal the patient:--_And he [Jesus] asked his father [the father of the sick youth], How long is it ago since this came unto him? (Mark ix, 21.)_
What difference did it make when or how the disease was contracted if it is true that "Jesus proved for all time and for all Christendom that the origin of disease was mental, and he healed it with mental medicine"? Perhaps the motive for representing Jesus as indifferent to the physical condition of his patient is to excuse the Christian Science practitioner for his ignorance of the human body and his contempt for physical science.
But the most irreconcilable difference between Jesus Christ and Mary Baker Eddy is in the spirit in which they performed their miracles. Jesus does not appear to have had any financial schemes in his head. He tells his followers to give freely the power which they have themselves freely received. The idea of taking money for a cure, or charging a large sum for the purpose of encouraging appreciation for his gifts, would have shocked the Jesus of the Gospels. The mere suggestion that some day a woman would copyright and commercialize this "divine power" would have made him indignant beyond expression. It is impossible to believe that the Jesus who said, "Get you no gold, no silver, nor brass, neither two coats, nor shoes," and also, "Freely ye received, freely give," could have the remotest sympathy with a woman who not only _sells_ what she calls "the power of God," but has also secured by legal procedure "a corner" on it. Mrs. Eddy's religion, then, is no more Christian than it is scientific. Had she been dealing in food products instead of in religion, the use of a false label would have made her liable to prosecution.
Arrested Mentation
|Perhaps the term which best describes the thinking which leads so many to accept Mrs. Eddy's teaching as both scientific and Christian is what the psychologists call "arrested mentation." The majority of people reason admirably up to a certain point, and then they suddenly come to a full stop. Having followed the right path to a considerable distance, they then deliberately refuse to follow it further. To speak more plainly, there are many people who reason correctly enough on some subjects, but on other subjects they manifest a credulity beyond belief. The Moslem, for instance, uses his reason against the claims of every religion but his own. The Christian Scientist argues like a trained logician against all alien cults, but when it is a question of his own faith he bids his reason to hush. For example, he observes, accurately enough, as we all do, that the mind frequently creates the conditions of the body. A man may at times think himself sick, or he may think himself into health. The will, too, is a factor to be reckoned with. The truth of the saying, "Where there's a will there's away," has more than once been demonstrated. In the same way, we all admit, since experience compels it, that the greater thoughts or sensations often crowd out of the mind the lesser ones. That is an axiom. If I am suffering from a toothache, the sudden appearance of a burglar in my room, pointing a revolver at me, will in all probability make me forget my toothache instantly. The cavity or the affected nerve which caused my pain is as real as ever, but for the time being I have a more intense sensation elsewhere in my system which renders me quite oblivious to the comparatively lesser pain. Within certain limits and in connection with certain maladies this principle--namely, the creating of a more powerful emotion in the mind than the one which is absorbing attention--could be, and is, utilized with therapeutic results. For people who worry, who imagine things, a complete diversion is usually all the medicine needed. So far, so well.
But the Christian Scientists who keep their eyes open to the evidences of the mind controlling the body, and know very well how to use these as arguments, shut their eyes completely to the equally convincing proofs of the power of the body over the mind. Hunger or insomnia, if prolonged, will put the mind out of commission. Destroy the optic nerve, and all the mentality in the world cannot make the eyes see. Stop the full flow of blood into the brain, and every one of our mental faculties--memory, perception, judgment, as well as the power of speech--becomes crippled, if not totally destroyed. Will any sensible person dispute these statements? The Christian Scientist, who sees how many things the mind can do, deliberately ignores the things it cannot do. Can mind, as Herbert Spencer asks, change a field sown in wheat into a cotton field? Can it make a horse into a cow? Can it transform an African into an Anglo-Saxon? Can it convert copper or brass into gold? Can we, by thinking, make the sun go around the earth? At one time people did think that the sun moved and that the earth stood still. Did thinking make it so?
It would be easier to prove that the mind would be helpless without the body than that the body would be helpless without the mind. Take away from man his erect posture or his hands, and not even the mentality of a Prometheus would prevent the decline and deterioration of the human race. What a wonderful instrument is the hand! It has no doubt contributed much towards the evolution of man. The thumb meeting each finger separately, or all four of them combined, enables one to take hold of things.
The ability to feel things with the hands, to turn them over, to take them apart, to bring them nearer to the eyes for a more minute examination, started the mind into action, just as the same hands, by putting food into the mouth, started the machinery of life into going. Deprive man of his hands, and he will slowly slip to the foot of the ladder, no matter how much mind he may have. On the other hand, endow an oyster with the human frame, and in time it will develop a mind and a civilization. An oyster with the mind of a Shakespeare would still be an oyster, while a Shakespeare with the body of an oyster would have no use for his "thousand souls." Why do not the converts of Mrs. Eddy see all sides of a question? Because they think so far and no farther.
Do Christian Scientists Use their Minds?
|Despite the frequent use of the word "mind," there are perhaps few people who use their minds less than Mrs. Eddy's disciples. Mental development is possible only where there is freedom to think, to experiment, to differ, and to originate. Are Christian Scientists permitted to think for themselves? Are they at liberty to differ or to express original views? To repeat or imitate another very little mind is required. All the Christian Science topics, lessons, and instructions are issued from headquarters, and the official readers in the denomination merely repeat these verbatim. In their Sunday meetings no original or even individual word is allowed. Of what use, then, is mentality to a consistent Christian Scientist, who believes that the truth, the only truth, the final truth, has been discovered and brought to him once for all?
In the Kentucky cave of darkness fishes and mice are found without eyes. What use could they make of sight in the darkness? Mind may become as superfluous to human beings who have nothing more to discover as eyes are to the denizens of Mammoth Cave.
The following from a letter sent to Mrs. Eddy and printed in _Science and Health_ (p. 615) shows what small use some people have for their minds. The writer, whose initials alone are given, "L. C. L., Salt Lake City, Utah," writes how he fell from his bicycle while riding down a hill "at a rapid pace; and, falling on my left side with my arm under my head, the bone was broken about halfway between the shoulder and elbow. While the pain was intense, I lay in the dust declaring the truth, and denying that there could be a break or accident in the realm of Divine Love." So saying, he remounts his wheel and rides home and orders _Science and Health_ to be brought to him immediately, "which I read for about ten minutes, when all pain left." When he told his story his hearers would not believe that his arm could have been broken. To prove that it had he goes to an X-ray physician, who says: "Yes, it has been broken, but whoever set it made a perfect job of it, and you will never have any further trouble from that break." The writer concludes his letter with: "This is the first of several cases of _mental surgery_ that have come under my notice."
What shall we think of the mentality which can be the parent of such contradictions! Here is a man who admits that he fell, though "there are no accidents in the realm of Divine Love." He also admits that he broke his arm while "denying that there could be a break in the realm of Divine Love." The broken bone is set by the reading of _Science and Health_, although it could not have been broken, for he did not fall, seeing that there are "no accidents in the realm of Divine Love." If he did not fall, he did not break his bone. But if the bone was not broken, it was not set; and if it was not set, there was nothing to prove the healing power of Christian Science. Therefore, he did fall and did break his bone "while denying that there could be a break or an accident in the realm of Divine Love"; and a physician, a man of material science, is called in to prove that the broken bone was admirably set by "mental surgery."
Let me add that if _Science and Health_ could set a broken bone, it could also have prevented the accident. If it could not, then Christian Science is insufficient; if it could have prevented the fall and the breaking of the bone, and did not, then it was responsible for the misfortune. The further fact that the X-ray discovered that the bone had been set proves that Mrs. Eddy's _Science and Health_ had not been able to obliterate all the marks of the fall and the break; which again shows that accidents do happen and bones do break "in the realm of Divine Love." People who make no better use of their minds than "L. C. L." of Salt Lake City does might just as well have no more mind than the cave fishes have eyes.
Examples of "Reasoning."