0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

QA 16 of 24. The subtitles for this question are listed below. 

1. Question. — Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and
	is there intelligence in matter? 
2. Harmonious functions
3. Birthright - Immortal birthright
4. Matter - Matter’s supposed self-hood
5. Chaos and darkness
6. Reflection - Spiritual reflection
7. Harmony from Spirit
8. Evil non-existent
9. Nothingness - Vapor and nothingness
10. Forbidden - The fruit forbidden
11. Sense and pure Soul
12. Soul defined

QUESTION for this SUBTITLE

  	Question. — Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and
15	is there intelligence in matter? 

SUBTITLE for above Question

  	Question. — Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and
15	is there intelligence in matter? 
  	Answer. — No, not if God is true and mortal man a
  	liar. The assertion that there can be pain or pleasure
18	in matter is erroneous. That body is most	                                 Harmonious
  	harmonious in which the discharge of the nat-	                         functions 
  	ural functions is least noticeable. How can intelligence
21	dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and
  	brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the
  	functions of Mind. Error says, "I am man;" but this
24	belief is mortal and far from actual. From beginning
  	to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material hu-
  	man beliefs and of nothing else. That only is real which
27	reflects God. St. Paul said, "But when it pleased God,
  	who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me
  	by His grace, . . . I conferred not with flesh and blood." 
30	    Mortal man is really a self-contradictory phrase, for
  	man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is im-
1	mortal. If a child is the offspring of physical sense and
  	not of Soul, the child must have a material, not a spirit-
 3	ual origin. With what truth, then, could the	                                    Immortal
  	Scriptural rejoicing b...e uttered by any mother,	                                    birthright 
  	"I have gotten a man from the Lord"? On the con-
 6	trary, if aught comes from God, it cannot be mortal and
  	material; it must be immortal and spiritual. 
  	    Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit. 
 9	An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is
  	all that the eye beholds. Matter cannot see,	                                   Matter's
  	feel, hear, taste, nor smell. It is not self-	                                           supposed
12	cognizant, — cannot feel itself, see itself, nor	                                   selfhood 
  	understand itself. Take away so-called mortal mind,
  	which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter
15	can take no cognizance of matter. Does that which we
  	call dead ever see, hear, feel, or use any of the physical
  	senses? 
18	    "In the beginning God created the heaven and the
  	earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and
  	darkness was upon the face of the deep."	                              Chaos and
21	(Genesis i. 1, 2.) In the vast forever, in the	                              darkness 
  	Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit
  	and its innumerable creations. Darkness and chaos
24	are the imaginary opposites of light, understanding,
  	and eternal harmony, and they are the elements of
  	nothingness. 
27	    We admit that black is not a color, because it reflects
  	no light. So evil should be denied identity or power,
  	because it has none of the divine hues. Paul	                                     Spiritual
30	says: "For the invisible things of Him, from	                                     reflection 
  	the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being under-
  	stood by the things that are made." (Romans i. 20.) 
 1	When the substance of Spirit appears in Christian Sci-
  	ence, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where
 3	the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is
  	not, evil becomes nothing, — the opposite of the some-
  	thing of Spirit. If there is no spiritual reflection, then
6      there remains only the darkness of vacuity and not a trace
  	of heavenly tints. 
  	    Nerves are an element of the belief that there is sensa-
 9	tion in matter, whereas matter is devoid of sensation. 
  	Consciousness, as well as action, is governed	                                  Harmony
  	by Mind, — is in God, the origin and gov-	                                          from Spirit 
12	ernor of all that Science reveals. Material sense has
  	its realm apart from Science in the unreal. Harmonious
  	action proceeds from Spirit, God. Inharmony has no
15	Principle; its action is erroneous and presupposes man
  	to be in matter. Inharmony would make matter the
  	cause as well as the effect of intelligence, or Soul, thus
18	attempting to separate Mind from God. 
  	    Man is not God, and God is not man. Again, God,
  	or good, never made man capable of sin. It is the oppo-
21	site of good — that is, evil — which seems to	                                 Evil
  	make men capable of wrong-doing. Hence,	                                         non-existent 
  	evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a
24	false belief. God is not its author. The supposititious
  	parent of evil is a lie. 
  	    The Bible declares: "All things were made by Him
27	[the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything
  	made that was made." This is the eternal	                                       Vapor and
  	verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness, and	                                       nothingness 
30	death were understood as nothingness, they would dis-
  	appear. As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would
  	vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the
 1	other. How important, then, to choose good as the
  	reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing
 3	else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and
  	boundless bliss. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
  	there is liberty." Like the archpriests of yore, man is
 6	free "to enter into the holiest," — the realm of God. 
  	    Material sense never helps mortals to understand
  	Spirit, God. Through spiritual sense only, man com-
 9	prehends and loves Deity. The various con-	                                       The fruit
  	tradictions of the Science of Mind by the ma-	                                       forbidden 
  	terial senses do not change the unseen Truth, which re-
12	mains forever intact. The forbidden fruit of knowledge,
  	against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of
  	error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death,
15	and good and evil to be capable of commingling. This
  	is the significance of the Scripture concerning this "tree
  	of the knowledge of good and evil," — this growth of
18	material belief, of which it is said: "In the day that thou
  	eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Human hypotheses
  	first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and
21	then assume the necessity of these evils because of their
  	admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the pro-
  	curers of all discord. 
24	    If Soul sins, it must be mortal. Sin has the elements
  	of self-destruction. It cannot sustain itself. If sin is
  	supported, God must uphold it, and this is	                                    Sense and
27	impossible, since Truth cannot support error. 	                            pure Soul 
  	Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, — 
  	hence the immortality of Soul. In Science we learn that
30	it is material sense, not Soul, which sins; and it will be
  	found that it is the sense of sin which is lost, and not a
  	sinful soul. When reading the Scriptures, the substitu-
 1	tion of the word sense for soul gives the exact meaning in
  	a majority of cases. 
 3	    Human thought has adulterated the meaning of the
  	word soul through the hypothesis that soul is both an evil
  	and a good intelligence, resident in matter. 	                                        Soul
 6	The proper use of the word soul can always	                                        defined 
  	be gained by substituting the word God, where the deific
  	meaning is required. In other cases, use the word sense,
 9	and you will have the scientific signification. As used
  	in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of
  	Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with
12	sense, with material sensation. 
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