Do you believe in matter?

May 31, 2011 | 13 comments

I was recently reading through some notes from the Mary Baker Eddy Library that I had accumulated a few years ago. I was a bit startled, yet delighted, when I read a quote from Mrs. Eddy to the effect of, “I am so surprised when I hear that one of my students believe matter is real.”

Wow! No exceptions. She expected her students to be so clear on the reality of Spirit and the unreality of matter that it was a surprise to her whenever she heard differently.

I can only imagine what she thought when hearing her students bowed down to matter-beliefs; “Didn’t they pay attention in class!”

So, I give myself a check once in a while and ask, “Do I believe in matter today? If so, quit it! Didn’t I pay attention when reading the Bible and Science and Health last time around?”

Hmmm…lots of metaphysical room to grow here…LOL

“Question. — What is the scientific statement of being?

Answer. — There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.” Mary Baker Eddy

13 thoughts on “Do you believe in matter?”

  1. When I first read the Scientific Statement of Being in Science & Health by Mary Baker Eddy, I was 15years old and I said, of course! It was so logical to me that if God is All, there is no matter. And yet, today many years later, I still have to struggle with seeing it to be completely true. Thanks for the reminder. We must declare it and know it – that’s praying without ceasing as the Bible tells us. Vicki

  2. While praying about an illness that just wouldn’t seem to yield, I was working with the Scientific Statement of Being. Suddenly it dawned on me that ‘matter’ is material beliefs–and that helped so much! ‘Matter’ didn’t seem so solid and real because, of course, belief can be corrected!

    Thanks again for this post! I have just finished reading ‘Mary Baker Eddy-Christian Healer’ amplified version. She certainly expected students of Christian Science to heal and to free themselves from the mesmerizing belief of life in matter. I will be asking myself the same question as you asked from now on–the belief of matter does need to be constantly eradicated from thought.

  3. We are never praying to heal

    Some “thing” thought to be real

    Instead, it is to clarify and find

    A “seeing” from Divine Mind

    Truth takes care of all the rest

    What appears can feel like a test, but,

    Regardless what you’re feeling,

    Truth’s Recognition is the healing.

  4. “Hmmm…lots of metaphysical room to grow here…LOL”… I loved that… It’s so true!
    I shared this article on My Facebook and a bunch of my friends loved it too!
    Thanks Evan. Many blessings to you.

  5. Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritul neither in nor matter and the body will then utter no complaints, S&H 14:12-16, then I begin the Scientific Statement of Being. I find that healing begins to follow.

  6. Why dismiss all that we have?
    It’s the only thing we have.

    You can only be thinking your thoughts and making up stories and having an identity because of matter.

  7. To above,

    Aw, but you miss the whole point! Matter is not all that we have. It’s not what it appears to be at all. Physicists verify that is all emptiness, nothing in it. What it appears to be is illusion.

    Aside from the above, though, consciousness does not reside in the body. It resides outside the body. People with after death experiences have proved that thousands of times. Jesus proved it.

    From a mortal mind point of view, mind does walk around in matter. Matter is a concept of mortal mind that mortal mind walks around… Mind is always the boss and determiner of all things. What you call matter is but effect.

  8. I understand your point, I just think it’s dismissive of the evidence, contradictory, and delusional.
    Physicists will not tell you that matter is emptiness and nothing.. they will tell you it is very real, but at the very small level, it is quite bizarre and acts very differently.
    And I’m sorry but you’re wrong about consciousness as well. Numerous nueroscience case-studies point to the damages in the brain that reset personality, erase memory, prevent new memories or motor skills or sensory processing.
    Near Death Experiences are recreated (similar flashes of light, ethereal lucidness, etc.) by stimulating the same areas of the cortex that receive extra waves of electricity when a human suffers from oxygen deprivation and decreased blood pressure. Jesus’ conflicting stories of resurrection are terrible evidence.

    Christian Science is not science, it is psuedoscience.
    Please take a good long look into the history and methods of science, and I hope you’ll see that Christian Science is on the side of failed theologies, and one that endangers children.

  9. Well, there certainly are differences of opinion on the subject. But that’s okay. From my own experience, Christian Science is the most enlightening science in the world. It explains the Big Picture and makes sense of the world and what is to come. But I also have great respect for all those in the physical sciences are discovering and learning for it all contributes to the ultimate realization that the universe is not what it appears to the physical senses. There is a whole lot more, and the whole lot more is Mind.

    Lots of love…

  10. Thanks Evan for your clear undestanding on this subject, it is much appreciated. I find many of your articles and video most helpful.

  11. Brave Evan! Taking on the arguments against CS. These are to be expected, though, in view of the radical nature of what CS teaches. Matter: unreal? Of course this is preposterous to someone who has yet to reason scientifically from the premise of the one infinite, divine Mind as All, and anything less as not. And to reason with this premise to conclusions about enough typical human subjects all the way through to healing, to resolution of the conflict, to dissolution of the problem, one can then only conclude that this teaching is true, is scientific, and, most important, it is from God.

    Mary Baker Eddy discovered the spiritual laws of
    divine Truth, Life, and Love…and proved them to be
    rock-solid spiritual facts which material beliefs cannot stand up to. She wrote that “The ages must slowly work up to perfection. How long it must be before we arrive at the demonstration of scientific being, no man knoweth…” It will be many, many generations for the overturning of material beliefs.
    Yet, it is happening. Nothing can stop it.

    Regarding CS being a threat to children: have you read the statistics about how many children die in hospitals every year? I raised my three without the need for medical help, but with the loving (and quick) care of devoted Christian Science healers. Divine Mind is the true Physician. If, however, I had found my children’s health to be ‘threatened’ in any way, I assure you I would have done whatever necessary to see them cared for promptly. CSers are not afraid to go to Doctors, we just don’t need to!
    And those CSers who at times do, no condemnation! God is Love!!

    We are evolving, folks, all of us! And the evolution is spiritual! Exciting News, huh!

    I love Christian Science!!!!

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