Is Matter All There Is?

In my second entry, “A New Beginning”, I said, “Medicine looks only at the material body; it evaluates man entirely from a physical point of view. But to Christian Science, which takes a wholly metaphysical view, man is entirely spiritual and the material body is only an image of one's thinking.”

A lot of people may have trouble with that. The world, as our schools teach it, is material. Everything in it is made up of molecules, which are themselves composed of atoms. Following this reasoning, some people assert that everything we think and feel is the result of biochemical processes resulting in electrical impulses in the brain.

So for people educated in the materiality of the world to begin to understand the Christian Science point of view, what can they do? Here's a question they can ask themselves. Is the love a mother feels for her child nothing more than biochemistry or electrical impulses in the brain? Or is it something more... something beyond the realm of matter?

If you are thoroughly convinced that a mother's love is nothing more than electrical impulses caused by biochemical processes, and nothing will ever change your mind, I have four words for you... Sorry, can't help you.

But if you look at the love of a mother for her child and see something that must exist beyond the realm of matter then, it follows that the part of a person which is responsible for loving isn't matter. Therefore matter isn't all there is. If this idea is new to you and makes sense to you then, as Obi-Wan said to Luke Skywalker, “You have taken your first step into a larger world.” Follow this line of reasoning and see where it leads.

In case you've never realized it, in the Chronicles of Narnia the great lion Aslan is a symbol for Christ Jesus. When Aslan isn't in Narnia he's in a place known as “Aslan's Land”, a symbol for the Kingdom of Heaven. Now Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven, or realm of Spirit, is within you... meaning within each of us. It is interesting to note that in one of the later Narnia stories (which hasn't been made into a movie) the children actually go to Aslan's Land. There, one of the children observes that Aslan's Land (the Kingdom of Heaven, which is within you) is “like an onion in reverse”... the more layers you peel off, the bigger it gets.

If the idea of the source of a mother's love being something beyond matter is new to you and something you're prepared to accept, then you've peeled off a layer. Keep peeling... I am. And as I do, each day brings greater insight and improvement in my situation.