Under Construction @ Keele 2018 Vol. IV (II) | Page 13

5
Beginning with an observation not unlike that of Berkeley, she notes that only minds
can have ideas, and concurs that physical matter cannot be responsible for mental function,
on the basis that mere matter cannot possess the ideas processed by cognition; for cognition
to be able to access these ideas, it must be composed of the same immaterial substance that
Eddy considered must be responsible for these ideas; both aspects of mental function must
therefore be incorporeal. 14 Although Eddy arrived at this independently, it is not original in
itself, but she immediately goes further with her argument in a way which I believe is original.
By reassessing what we refer to as our senses as instead creating not sensation but ideation,
she is able to create the possibility that all 'sensory' experience can be subject to error, ending
what was then two centuries of acceptance of the Cartesian idea that one cannot be mistaken
about sensory (as opposed to perceptual) experiences. 15 Eddy's main argument thus permits
a complete reassessment of what we believe ourselves to be and what we imagine ourselves
to exist within. Without hyperbole, it is hard to conceive of any element of what one might have
assumed to be the case about our universe, life and God that is not, in principle at least,
modified by her argument.
It is worthwhile re-capping at this point exactly what Eddy was claiming, and also taking
the opportunity to add a little more detail. Of great importance in the terminology specific to
Christian Science is t he word ‘error’. In Christian Science, it has an ontological aspect which
can be negated by divine Truth; error, therefore, ceases to exist once this Truth has been
realised. Eddy held that any belief system which posited the reality or power of anything other
than God is in error; one of the consequences of this idea is that the concept of evil is itself an
example of human-generated error. The classical explanation of evil offered by conventional
Christian theology is that freedom of will created the freedom to sin, with evil being the result.
Eddy’s solution to the age-old ‘Problem of Evil’ was as breathtakingly simple as it was
astounding radical: evil does not exist. 16
Although Christian Science is best known for its controversial claims regarding illness,
this aspect is both greatly misunderstood by the general public, and a corollary of a belief
system, rather than a core belief itself; it can be thought of as ‘applied’ idealism. The healing
performed by Christian Science practitioners involves helping the patient to deny the existence
of their illness, wholly unlike faith-based healing claimed by evangelical churches on the right
wing of mainstream Christianity. On the basis that illness and death are consequences of the
false belief in the existence of evil, the corollary is therefore that these are also unreal: “We
bow down to matter and entertain finite thoughts of God like the pagan idolater. Mortals are
Eddy, Science and Health, 335.
Charles Raff, ‘Introspection and Incorrigibility’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol
27, No.1, 1966, 70.
16 Eddy, Science and Health, 339.
14
15