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Science and Christian Healing.
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Overcoming the credibility gap.
The strongest credibility gap, however, is evidently that one which has been established against scientific spiritual healing, itself, where the metaphysical effect of the mental processes is being directly utilized for the healing of disease. Here, even the most alert thinkers find themselves challenged to regard such a thing as scientific Christ healing, in today's world, as credible. This may include even those who are keenly aware of the traps of empiricist thinking and "enlightenment" ideology. Many of them, nevertheless, impose empiricist limits on the power of Principle and the capacity of the human mind in utilizing the infinite Principle for healing humanity's problems and diseases, which are ultimately self-imposed. The person who is most likely to cross beyond such a credibility gap (which blocks Christ healing in our modern world) is one who has acquired a certain recognition of divine Love as infinite, as absolute Principle.
Christ healing has little in common, however, with faith healing. Faith healing is based on blind belief, whereas Christ healing is based on understanding of the principles of the universe, or Truth. The first relies on miracles, while second rests on demonstrations of underlying facts.
The credibility gap in the spiritual arena for healing the sick was formidable even in Christ Jesus' days, although not as strongly as it is today, but still so much so that the resulting healing manifestation was classified as "miracles." In today's world, we have become generally used to seeing miracles being performed. The computer revolution presents technological miracles to the highest degree, so great is the complexity of the hardware and software involved. Except in this case the miracles are understood. We recognize the miracles as the end result of a long chain of discoveries and improvements wrought over many decades. The phenomenon of Christ healing, that Christ Jesus had brought to the world, the principle of which was later rediscovered by Mary Baker Eddy, represents a explosive development akin to a major breakthrough on an astronomical scale. Hence the credibility gap. A strong credibility gap exists even in the minds of many today who honestly endeavor to utilize the historic breakthroughs for their own healing work.
So, where is the root of the credibility gap, then? As was said before, the Christian Science textbook is still in circulation. It is still being printed. It is still being read. Nor has a single word in the book been changed. But, where are today's testimonies that speak of people being healed from cancers and other diseases by studying the book? There are none, or very few.
All this leaves one with only one conclusion, that the underlying principles and the science that explores them, are not correctly understood today. Thus, the once profoundly demonstrated healing efficacy of the underlying principles and applied laws, has become largely inaccessible. In a very real sense, a certain degree of empiricism has been reestablished over the years. In this case the demarkation line is at a relatively high level.
Those who have made strong moral progress may have gained a certain appreciation of the higher dimension of Love, Truth, Soul, and Being, but rarely look beyond those. We have briefly looked at the three lower rows of Mary Baker Eddy's outlined scientific development structure. The three rows can be split into two opposite domains, in a confrontational setup. In the upwards oriented domain the highest manifest is man, the reflected image of God. In downwards oriented domain man appears evil and ruled by depravities. But there is a fourth row which has no direct connection with the confrontational structure of the three lower rows. This is the domain of the absolute, the domain of reality, the domain of God. Still, this domain is not isolated. Mary Baker Eddy recognized eight synonymous terms for God, which are: Principle, Life, Mind, Spirit, and Truth, Love, Soul, and Being. The first four are absolute terms. The last four terms, in contrast, have no meaning in the absolute sense. For instance, the concept of truth has no meaning when all is truth, but it is of great significance to human existence. Therefore, when all eight concepts are drawn into one, they begin to form a link that unites the the human with the divine onto a single whole.
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