Chapter X - Science Of Being
Confusion confounded
268:14In this final struggle for supremacy, semi-metaphysi-
cal systems afford no substantial aid to scientific meta-
physics, for their arguments are based on
the false testimony of the material senses as
well as on the facts of Mind. These semi-metaphysical
269:1systems are one and all pantheistic, and savor of Pan-
demonium, a house divided against itself.
269:3From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind
and matter and the mingling of good and evil have re-
sulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus' demon-
strations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the
unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothing-
ness, of evil.
Divine metaphysics
269:9Human philosophy has made God manlike. Christian
Science makes man Godlike. The first is error; the latter
is truth. Metaphysics is above physics, and
matter does not enter into metaphysical prem-
ises or conclusions. The categories of metaphysics rest
on one basis, the divine Mind. Metaphysics resolves
things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense
for the ideas of Soul.
269:17These ideas are perfectly real and tangible to spiritual
consciousness, and they have this advantage over the ob-
jects and thoughts of material sense, - they are good and
eternal.
Biblical foundations
269:21The testimony of the material senses is neither abso-
lute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly
on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of
the prophets, and on the testimony of the
Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none.
All other systems - systems based wholly or partly on
knowledge gained through the material senses - are reeds
shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock.
Rejected theories
269:29The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter;
(2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as
real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life.
The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as
270:1reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist
and cooperate. One only of the following statements can
be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that every-
thing is Mind. Which one is it?