Cults - Christian Science
- Thread starter tdickensheets
- Start date
My family came from CS. It started with my great, great grandfather who bought it hook, line, and sinker. Two generations later, all I knew was my great aunts telling me to "think good thoughts" and sneering at hospitals. Funny--just talk about Jesus to a CS person, and they become as rabid as an atheist, in my experience.
Its been rebaptized into the Church under guise of word of faith!
Faithoverbelief
Well-known member
What do Christian science believe?
Basically, denies sin and death, matter, life is an illusion , and that Jesus was a mere man who had the Christ mind/spirit! Denies hell, denies that Jesus died for sin, deny salvation, basically Christian mind science!
Whateverman
Well-known member
Hey there!
The only knowledge I have of it is how my great aunt/uncle behaved. They were both Christian Scientists, and their daughter (who eventually gave birth to my cousin) joined the Christian Science church. From the perspective of someone on the outside (aka. me), all three of them did their best to never give acknowledgement to pain or sickness; they believed doing so either caused or perpetuated sickness. Thinking good/happy thoughts was part of the focus, and to a little kid around the holidays at their house, all I saw was that they were cheerful people for the most part.
Not sappy or artificially happy; just optimistic, trying to keep a positive attitude, etc.
They were Christian in their beliefs, at least as far as I understood it up to my early teens. I wont make any claims about whether they were true Christians or not; they had a few crosses in their house and were pious without being obnoxious about it, etc. Basically, they seemed like normal, religious and well-meaning folks.
A side effect of this "positive attitude" is that they didn't see doctors very often. All three of them have had health problems that could have been controlled or healed by modern medicine. However, I came here just to explain what I saw, not to cast doubt on their beliefs.
Yep. Pretty much sums it up. While I'd say more about it's cultic, heretical nature, I appreciate your objective assessment of Christian Science based on your observation, Whateverman. Pretty spot on.
Whateverman
Well-known member
Thanks Woody. This place can get pretty contentious, but I work to not contribute to it.
I fail a lot.
Glad I managed to succeed here.
Yep. I get wrapped up in the tidal wave here myself. Good post.
Still wish I could call you Big W...anything but "Whateverman." I know it's your callsign, but I feel like I'm dismissing my entire argument when I address you after making one.
"So, you see I'm right, Whateverman." See????
This is intentional on your part, and brilliant, I must admit.
Whatever, man.
Whateverman
Well-known member
"W" works fine, Woody. I just didn't like the way "Big W" sounded like it could be either friendly or mockery. Abbreviate my name however you need to,
Nah. I need to grow up and use your name. I appreciate your feedback a lot. That said, I'll probably settle on a nickname for you based on our interactions. Gotta get to know you a bit more first.
Right now it's "You're right," but I don't like that one...
Its pretty much Gnostic version, as on ehas to accept that reality is an illusion, as no such things as real death, sin, hell!
Christian Science denies sin, salvation, hell, as all is just an illusion!
Well said. But we can call any heresy Gnosticism, New Age, or Christian Science--it's all Satanic.
Word of faith seems to be a mix of Gnosticism and Christian science!
Disagree. WoF is a mix of Gnosticism and spoiled American culture.
CS is just useless...
Rescued
Member
I was raised as a Christian Scientist. There is nothing Christian about it. And nothing scientific. God is not a personal God and so you can't have a personal relation to Him. He is Divine Mind. And we are a reflection of Divine Mind. Now if you want to know what that is you would have to look in Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. There she has a glossary of terms because she changes the meanings of everything. And none of it makes any sense. MBE is the founder and leader of CS though she is long dead. Their church services consist of a first and second reader. The first reader, always a man, reads the designated passages from the Bible. The second reader, always a woman, reads MBE's meaning for those scriptures.These readings are assigned in a quarterly that comes out every three months and cycle through the year, the same every year since the 1800's.
In one of her writings MBE said the blood of Jesus was no more efficacious when it was shed on the cross than it was when it ran in His veins. She considered her Science and Health to be the Comforter. Because she changes the definition of words, it is very difficult to read her stuff and pin point what is wrong with it. It is a cult. If you read any biographies of the founder that are not put out by the Society, you will find that she was most likely suffering from multiple personality disorders.
But it is true, that every CS I have known, Christian Scientists are "good" people, living uprightly without obnoxiousness. I love both my parents dearly. All my siblings and myself and my mother came to Christ and I have hope for my father because of something that happened when he was dying. He was raised Presbyterian, my mother raised Baptist.
Rescued
Member
Here is what the founder of CS teaches about the material world.
She states that nothing that is not good can actually exist because the Divine Mind is good. By that she means that everything bad, including our mortal bodies is not real, it is an illusion. And therefore is we align our mind with the Divine Mind which we are a reflection of, and remove all bad or negative thoughts, such as how sick we feel, or what disease the lying doctors say we have, the sickness will disappear as the illusion of an oasis in the desert distance disappears when we get closer to it.
You can say mantras to achieve this, though she of course does not call them mantras but truths. One I remember from when I was a child was, "God is good therefore there is not anything that is not good." Meaning what was not good was an illusion and I could make it disappear.
Strangely enough much of this metaphysical type teaching remains in certain sects of Christianity, and indeed has metaphysical roots some in CS. The only difference is it claims a personal God, Jesus as Savior, the physical as real not an illusion. Instead of trying to make an illusion disappear, it uses formulas that require God to give them what they desire.
She states that nothing that is not good can actually exist because the Divine Mind is good. By that she means that everything bad, including our mortal bodies is not real, it is an illusion. And therefore is we align our mind with the Divine Mind which we are a reflection of, and remove all bad or negative thoughts, such as how sick we feel, or what disease the lying doctors say we have, the sickness will disappear as the illusion of an oasis in the desert distance disappears when we get closer to it.
You can say mantras to achieve this, though she of course does not call them mantras but truths. One I remember from when I was a child was, "God is good therefore there is not anything that is not good." Meaning what was not good was an illusion and I could make it disappear.
Strangely enough much of this metaphysical type teaching remains in certain sects of Christianity, and indeed has metaphysical roots some in CS. The only difference is it claims a personal God, Jesus as Savior, the physical as real not an illusion. Instead of trying to make an illusion disappear, it uses formulas that require God to give them what they desire.
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Learner also
Active member
This is the first thing a CS is to memorize,
The scientific statement of being
There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.
From Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 468:9–15
