Doubt can be healthy if it prevents us from making a mistake because we don’t have sufficient knowledge to follow through with understanding. But doubt can also be a destructive evil that prevents progress. It all depends upon what we doubt.
For instance, if you are struggling with a disease and doubt you can be healed, this stops progress. You have more faith in the disease than you do in God, and you walk down the path of your faith.
So, it’s healthy to do a vigorous mental inventory of your doubts. Be sure to doubt evil, not good.
Mary Baker Eddy wisely stated,
“If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the supremacy of good, ought we not, contrariwise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to love sin and unnatural to forsake it, — no longer imagine evil to be ever-present and good absent?” Science and Health, p. 130.
If the truth be told, people too often doubt God and trust evil. They put more trust and faith in disease, suffering and lack than they do in health, harmony and abundance. And then they complain of the bad effect that ensues. The wiser course is to doubt evil and work vigorously to prove the omnipresence and omnipotence of God which can neutralize that evil and demonstrate its nothingness.
So, don’t be so quick to doubt God. Doubt mortal mind! Doubt evil! Doubt lack. Evil can be overcome. It can be defeated. Jesus Christ proved this, and millions of enlightened thinkers have likewise. You can too.
If you’re going to spend any mental time riled up in doubt, be sure to doubt the right thing—evil, not God, good! You’ll end up in a much better place.
Yes of course disease can be defeated if we put more faith in the supremacy of Truth (God), then we put in the claims of error. Mary Baker Eddy writes in her text book Science and Health : “It is well to be calm in sickness; to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sickness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the universal and perfect remedy.”
We all know that God is OMNIPOTENT i.e. all powerful, OMNIPRESENT i.e. all present and filling all space. But do we really understand what we know? Because if God fills all space and is all powerful then does disease have any place to manifest itself or does disease have any power to harm us??? NO not at all. Its so logical and easier to trust in GOD the divine Mind then to trust in mortal mind i.e. what the material picture tells you.
Its your divine right to Trust in God and claim your good health now.
This is a great wake up call for me this morning! It is time to clean out my thinking. Thanks Evan.
Thank you Evan! I love the idea of using doubt as a means of neutralizing error!
The first line of this blog also made me ask myself…”How does one gain knowledge or understanding?”
Thinking humanly, the answer would be through “accretion”. That made me think of grocery shopping, during which one gets a shopping cart and gradually adds groceries to their cart as they walk about the store. But do I really need to be limited to gaining knowledge/understanding through a slow, time based process of accretion? That could take years!
What does Christian Science teach, I pondered. Lately I’ve been thinking about this statement from page 301 of Science and Health:
Few persons comprehend what Christian Science means by the word reflection.
This statement has made me think Mrs. Eddy is warning us to really think deeply about what is meant by reflection because so few people really understand this concept. On page 515 of S&H she uses a mirror analogy to point out that man is the exact likeness of God.
Also, on page 465 of S&H is the statement:
Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God…and His reflection is man and the universe.
Notice the verb tense…”is one” not “are one”. To me this is like saying “the sun and its light is one” or “the sun and its heat is one”, meaning you can’t separate effect from cause. Another synonym for God is Mind. The effect of Mind is knowledge or understanding. Therefore, God is both Mind and knowledge, understanding, intelligence.
Putting all this together would mean that being the reflection of God we already HAVE knowledge and understanding because those are attributes of God. We don’t have to gain those attributes through accretion. We reflect them since they are already part of God! Therefore, we can take comfort in the truth that we have the knowledge and understanding right now, through reflection of God, to meet every human need!
Humanly this need can be met in many ways, however. One day reflection may lead us to call a Christian Science practitioner for help as a way of meeting our need for understanding. Another day reflection may result in us being still and listening for God’s direction to hear the knowledge we need. But without a doubt, through reflection, we already have what we need to meet every need.
Thank you for yet another very enlightening SpiritView and comments!
God is with us!!!
:-)))
Another great reminder – so simply stated. Thanks Evan! .
perfect article and perfect comments…this is a village of healers today!!!
thank you so very much.
Kate
Thank you so much!!!!
You have zeroed in on the crux of the matter here Evan– we must doubt fear, evil, any and all ideas coming from the mortal mind and stay with divine Mind in identifying who we are–children of God able to express our innocence, well being, freedom and joy of Life. This is a God given right, it is the law of Love and Life which sustains us, supports us and maintains us as His image and likeness. With these spiritual lesson and encouragement, we find progress and healing. I sent this to a friend to share as we were just discussing these ideas recently! Thank you for your love in sharing these spiritual insights with others! It makes a difference!
Thanks Evan. I just love your post that give good guidance to the start of the day. I feel blessed to be part of this community with all these wonderful comments an added blessing.
Lately I have gone through such pressure and temptation to believe that evil governs me. I ask myself why and the answer is clear. My understanding of the nothingness of mortal mind is a threat to it, because it exposes it so as to destroy it. That’s exactly what’s happening as I continue to deny evil thoughts coming to my consciousness to except it as reality. Evil is terrified of me instead of me being terrified of evil.
I agree with Tobias’ conclusion. I would like to hear further insight about this.
Hi Bob,
Personally I think it’s important not to assign intelligence or reality to anything but God and His creation.
For example, when watching a young child start walking, you might see them take a tumble or two. You could conclude that “imbalance” or “immobility” are causing the child to fall because they see the child attempting to walk as a threat to their existence. But we don’t think that way do we? Similarly I don’t think we should ever think that evil or mortal mind has power to counteract or delay our demonstrations of good.
You might also argue that the child experiencing imbalance is “caused” by them attempting to walk and that if they only refrained from learning to walk they could avoid experiencing imbalance. But we don’t think that way either, do we, because we know the alternative to walking is a life of immobility and nobody wants that. Similarly, if we avoid demonstrating Truth because we think that will allow us to skip facing the errors in our thinking, that just results in us experiencing those errors longer and nobody wants that.
Isn’t it always fear, doubt, ignorance, or sin that we entertain in our thinking that cause us to experience discord and not that there is some discordant power out to get us? When Peter walked on the water and then doubt and fear crept into his thinking, neither the water nor gravity decided all of a sudden that Peter was a threat and therefore decided to make Peter sink. Sinking was the result of the fear and doubt Peter allowed into his thinking. But like Peter, we can reach out to Christ in thought to correct the fear, doubt, etc. in our thinking and the true idea of God, Christ, will restore harmony (i.e. will reveal the truth that God is the only cause and therefore harmony can be the only effect).
What a beautiful Christian Science treatment the comments have been this norming. Thanks to all!
Sorry for the typo – it should say “morning.”
Thank you Brian. That was helpful. It was awful nice of you to take the time to help me along with this. I will keep working at understanding it better. One quote that did pop into my mind that might be relevant is S&H 97:22: “It requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth
lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its inarticulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.”
Thank you, Evan, for this powerful reminder of one more way to express dominion!
This is just perfect, Evan, and so are the comments. Brian, you are a fabulous thinker.
Brian, I studied your remarks once again this morning (Saturday) and I see what your are saying much more clearly and it is having an uplifting and healing affect on me, so I am very grateful. Thank you, Bob
I’m very happy to hear that Bob! Thanks for letting me know.
The ideas Evan shares with us every day and the comments from everyone have been very helpful to me too, so I’m glad I was able to pay back a little of what I have gained from this Blog.
It seems that evil is knocking at the door and we must continue to keep our thoughts as we are viewed by God, Love conquerors all.