Evolution
March 13, 2003
If Life is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embryonic, it is infinite.
We had no idea going into our topic that Christian Science had so much to say on evolution. Indeed even the readings from the Bible show that the first chapters of Genesis lay out the whole scheme of evolution, whether from a spiritual or a material standpoint. And our readings from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy barely scratch the surface of her thoughts on the subject. (These are contained mainly in the chapters "Creation" and "Genesis" in Science and Health).
It seemed to some of us that Mrs. Eddy's deepest insights into the spiritual origin and destiny of man were generated as a reaction to Darwin's theories which burst on the world in 1859, just seven years before the discovery of Christian Science. (She refers to Darwin on page 265 of the first edition of Science and Health, 1875).
A couple of our members keep up with advances in biology and clued us in to the latest developments in evolution theory. Apparently many of Darwin's propositions — e.g., survival of the fittest, natural selection and random genetic mutation — are being questioned and revised. Today many scientists with an eye to chaos theory are finding support for notions like the self-organization of life and the beneficial environmental alteration of the genetic code.
Edward O. Wilson, a celebrated biologist and evolutionist, has stated "The evolutionary epic is probably the best myth we will ever have." We wondered whether people in the future will treat evolution like Adam and Eve as one of those quaint creation myths various societies need in order to explain how they got here.
The evolution of homosexuality came up. Not only is same-sex erotic activity now wide-spread in nature but has been found to have existed some 200 million years ago. (See Biological Exuberance, by Bruce Bagemihl). Of course it has required sensitive observers to identify this fact — in other words, an evolution in thinking. And we all had multiple examples of how the position of LGBT people in Western democratic societies, at least, has evolved in our lifetimes. This evolution is deeply in accord not only with genetic requirements and material exigencies but the demands of Christian Science.
One member read us a letter to the editors of the March 2003 edition of the Christian Science Journal about Darwin's "Lost Theory of Love" which proposed that mankind is "primarily driven by love, 'the need to transcend ourselves'."
Mrs. Eddy does not deny Darwin's evolutionary theories as far as they go, but she does state what we called the Science of evolution as — per one member — "progressively clearer views of reality." Another member recalled a discussion between his parents. His mother said something like, "Well, I wonder how it'll all work out," to which his father responded, "It's already worked out."
This brought forth an interesting point from yet another member: "That's it! The world of Spirit is completely perfect and we as mortals are evolving in our ability to embody that." Then he added, "Of course we're not really mortals undergoing evolution biologically or mentally — we're divine right now. This is the central point in the practice of Christian Science." He took the Concordance and looked up this: "You can never demonstrate spirituality until you declare yourself to be immortal and understand that you are so." (The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 242:3)
Can evolution occur without cycles of reproduction? "Probably not with our current state of understanding," said one member. "But since perfection is the present fact of being, such backwardness won't remain unchallenged."
What about clones? "We as students of Christian Science must treat them, like any other individual, as divine idea, not a material phenomenon and certainly not something bizarre."
One member was particularly interested in the evolution of human consciousness. He sees the first chapter of Genesis as describing a "uroboric" state of primary narcissism needing to be broken up and cleansed of its unconscious materialism. Ultimately, after much suffering and growth, the New Jerusalem descends to symbolize true wholeness. The resulting unity of Spirit and matter is what Carl Jung calls "unus mundus" and Mrs. Eddy the "city foursquare". It's the cosmic consciousness or one divine Mind which we seem bound for in belief but already constituted of in reality. (Our member referred us to Jung's Mysterium Coniunctionis, pp. 533-553, and Science and Health pp. 572-578 for the background).
We disposed of "Creationism" quickly. As students of Christian Science we do not take the Adam and Eve as anything more than one of mankind's many creation myths which contain remote symbols needing explication. The remoteness of the symbolism is developed more fully in Marie-Louise Von Franz's Creation Myths, p. 13. Mrs. Eddy says this: "Scientific interpretation of the Scriptures properly starts with the beginning of the Old Testament, chiefly because the spiritual import of the Word, in its earliest articulations, often seems so smothered by the immediate context as to require explication;" (Science and Health, p. 501:1).
There was a brief discussion of whether death was a solution for the problem of birth. One member said this: "If birth is error why compound it with death. Two wrongs don't make a right. Rise out of both and be free." Others seemed to agree with this. Here's something from Mrs. Eddy: "Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be gained by dying." (Science and Health, p. 556:10)
We then traced the evolution of thought in two situations.
1) Iraq. We're all seeing tremendous shifts in moods and possibilities but feel it is essential for Scientists to stick closely to the facts of being and not get caught up in personalities, fears and judgments. The world is undergoing a giant leap in the evolution of relations between peoples to better pattern the divine fact of preexistent oneness.
2) Gay Marriage. The battle grounds of the 1990's — court victories and legislative reversals — are fading before the evolution of public attitudes on the fairness and appropriateness of granting full rights for same-sex marriage. The completeness of Deity reflected by man is the overriding fact ushering in this growth of human consciousness.
A member suffering from severe shyness because of "super-ego" inflictions asked for help in Science. Another member who had gone through something similar summarized his healing based on the all-power of God and his willingness to just reach out to others whatever the outcome. This member agreed to work prayerfully for the sufferer.
Another member expressed gratitude for his recovery from "commitment-phobia" about serving as an officer of a club he belongs to. He was afraid he'd get caught in a kind of roach motel situation — i.e., no exit. He prayed, talked to people and finally realized he enjoyed very much the activities he was engaged in at the club and could do his part to support its functioning. He will run for office!
For next week we'll look at The Media.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. #And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
According to mortal thought, the development of embryonic mortal mind commences in the lower, basal portion of the brain, and goes on in an ascending scale by evolution, keeping always in the direct line of matter, for matter is the subjective condition of mortal mind.
Next we have the formation of so-called embryonic mortal mind, afterwards mortal men or mortals,—all this while matter is a belief, ignorant of itself, ignorant of what it is supposed to produce. The mortal says that an inanimate unconscious seedling is producing mortals, both body and mind; and yet neither a mortal mind nor the immortal Mind is found in brain or elsewhere in matter or in mortals.
This embryonic and materialistic human belief called mortal man in turn fills itself with thoughts of pain and pleasure, of life and death, and arranges itself into five so-called senses, which presently measure mind by the size of a brain and the bulk of a body, called man.
Human birth, growth, maturity, and decay are as the grass springing from the soil with beautiful green blades, afterwards to wither and return to its native nothingness. This mortal seeming is temporal; it never merges into immortal being, but finally disap-pears, and immortal man, spiritual and eternal, is found to be the real man.
Christian Science is dawning upon a material age. The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine in the darkness, though the darkness, comprehending them not, may deny their reality.
In its history of mortality, Darwin's theory of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin's theory,—that Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter with power to recreate the universe, including man. Material evolution implies that the great First Cause must become material, and afterwards must either return to Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.
Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals. They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil, which declares that man begins in dust or as a material embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are inseparable as divine Principle and idea.
When spiritual being is understood in all its perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found in God's image.
There can be but one creator, who has created all. Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery of some distant idea of Truth; else it is a new multiplication or self-division of mortal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the infinite.
As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness.
With the spiritual birth, man's primitive, sinless, spiritual existence dawns on human thought,—through the travail of mortal mind, hope deferred, the perishing pleasure and accumulating pains of sense,—by which one loses himself as matter, and gains a truer sense of Spirit and spiritual man.
Creation, evolution, or manifestation,—being in and of Spirit, Mind, and all that really is,—must be spiritual and mental. This is Science, and is susceptible of proof.
But, say you, is a stone spiritual?
To erring material sense, No! but to unerring spiritual sense, it is a small manifestation of Mind, a type of spiritual substance, "the substance of things hoped for."
^Is there infinite progression with man after the destruction of mortal mind?^
Man is the offspring and idea of the Supreme Being, whose law is perfect and infinite. In obedience to this law, man is forever unfolding the endless beatitudes of Being; for he is the image and likeness of infinite Life, Truth, and Love.
Infinite progression is concrete being, which finite mortals see and comprehend only as abstract glory. As mortal mind, or the material sense of life, is put off, the spiritual sense and Science of being is brought to light.