Chapter X - Science Of Being
Like evolving like
277:1
ever non-intelligent and therefore cannot spring from
ever non-intelligent and therefore cannot spring from
intelligence. To all that is unlike unerring and eternal
Mind, this Mind saith, "Thou shalt surely die;" and else-
where the Scripture says that dust returns to dust. The
non-intelligent relapses into its own unreality. Matter
never produces mind. The immortal never produces the
mortal. Good cannot result in evil. As God Himself is
good and is Spirit, goodness and spirituality must be im-
mortal. Their opposites, evil and matter, are mortal
error, and error has no creator. If goodness and spirit-
uality are real, evil and materiality are unreal and can-
not be the outcome of an infinite God, good.
277:13
Natural history presents vegetables and animals as
Natural history presents vegetables and animals as
preserving their original species, – like reproducing like.
A mineral is not produced by a vegetable nor the man
by the brute. In reproduction, the order of genus and
species is preserved throughout the entire round of nature.
This points to the spiritual truth and Science of being.
Error relies upon a reversal of this order, asserts that
Spirit produces matter and matter produces all the ills
of flesh, and therefore that good is the origin of evil.
These suppositions contradict even the order of material
so-called science.
Material error
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The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit
The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit
is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine, – it is
a human concept. Matter is an error of state-
ment. This error in the premise leads to errors
in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters.
Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immor-
tal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phe-
nomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always
erroneous.
Substance versus supposition
278:1
Is Spirit the source or creator of matter? Science re-
Is Spirit the source or creator of matter? Science re-
veals nothing in Spirit out of which to create matter.
Divine metaphysics explains away matter.
Spirit is the only substance and consciousness
recognized by divine Science. The material
senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for
matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even
as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is
a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance‑
matter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite,
all. Spirit can have no opposite.
One cause supreme
278:12
That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is
That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is
one of the false beliefs of mortals, and exists only in a
supposititious mortal consciousness. Hence,
as we approach Spirit and Truth, we lose the
consciousness of matter. The admission that there can
be material substance requires another admission, –
namely, that Spirit is not infinite and that matter is self‑
creative, self-existent, and eternal. From this it would
follow that there are two eternal causes, warring forever
with each other; and yet we say that Spirit is supreme
and all-presence.
278:23
The belief of the eternity of matter contradicts the
The belief of the eternity of matter contradicts the
demonstration of life as Spirit, and leads to the conclu-
sion that if man is material, he originated in matter and
must return to dust, – logic which would prove his an-
nihilation.
Substance is Spirit
278:28
All that we term sin, sickness, and death is a mortal
All that we term sin, sickness, and death is a mortal
belief. We define matter as error, because it is the oppo-
site of life, substance, and intelligence. Mat-
ter, with its mortality, cannot be substantial
if Spirit is substantial and eternal. Which ought to