Chapter XV - Genesis
Deep-reaching interrogations
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If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the
If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the
human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind.
God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms
and preserves the individuality and identity
of animals as well as of men. God cannot
become finite, and be limited within material bounds.
Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed
through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate
what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be-
gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being
and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it
will hereafter.
Stages of existence
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Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The
Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The
continual contemplation of existence as material and cor-
poreal – as beginning and ending, and with
birth, decay, and dissolution as its component
stages – hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes
our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting‑
point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life
is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry-
onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for
Deity.
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Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro-
Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro-
ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor
does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed
monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous
and absurd as the supposition that Spirit – the pure and
holy, the immutable and immortal – can originate the
impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science
repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses
551:1
must father these absurdities, for both the material senses
must father these absurdities, for both the material senses
and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal.
The real producer
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Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is
Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is
first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quantity,
called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro-
duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural
history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual
history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind.
The ascent of species
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One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring
One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring
from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he
adds that mankind has ascended through all
the lower grades of existence. Evolution de-
scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not
acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma-
terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that
all Science is of God, not of man.
Transmitted peculiarities
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Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material
Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material
nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, –
themselves composed of the simplest material
elements, – by which all peculiarities of an-
cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from
generation to generation?" The question of the natu-
ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans-
mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and
doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on
materiality. From a material standpoint, "Canst thou
by searching find out God?" All must be Mind, or
else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other.
Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material
seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and
the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.
Causation not in matter
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The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,
The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,