The Root of Christian Science in a
Renaissance of Reason
The bright historic period in which Christian Science
is rooted is recognized today as the Greek Classical
Period. The tremendous development in scientific
understanding of this period unfolded from the need for
creating of a nation. Before this time the mountains of
Greece were inhabited by numerous primitive tribes which
were largely ruled by mythologies, distorted ideals, and
were often at war with each other. However, in order for
these tribes to be able to defend themselves against the
attacks of vastly larger and stronger empires, a nation
had to be created to develop capacities that no tribe by
itself could ever hope to achieve. Also, this nation had
to be created out the existing background of those
scattered, primitive tribes. For this goal a common
ground had to be established based on a community of
principle, and this had to be done long before the
principle of common defense and the related commitment to
protect the general welfare of all citizens could be
achieved. The problem was, that the goal that had to be
attained was far out of reach for those people whose
vocabulary rarely exceeded a hundred words.
Homer apparently recognized that in order for the
necessary development to occur, an advanced type of
language had to be created that allowed the development
of the kind of high level thinking to occur that is
impossible to contemplate with a hundred word vocabulary.
Homer evidently understood this, or understood it partly.
Whatever the reasons might have been, Homer started a
revolutionary linguistic development that inspired the
people of his land, that caused them to recognize
themselves as a nation. Nor did this trend stop. The
development continued and expanded into the contemplation
of highly complex ideas. Out of this background unfolded
the greatest scientific, cultural, and technological
development period in history.
In the space of four-hundred years the collection of
isolated mountain tribes had become the most advanced
nation in the world, the nation of Solon, Socrates, Plato
with its world famous University of Athens. The explosive
scientific and cultural development drive also spread
into Egypt. The scientific development was so advanced
during this period that it was already known in app. 240
BC that the earth is a sphere, through the research work
of Eratosthenes in Egypt. Even the circumference of the
earth had been accurately calculated by Eratosthenes at
this time. Moreover, his scientific method for
calculating what no man has ever seen, became the basis
for Egypt's sending out a flotilla in 232 BC (1723 years
before Columbus), to circumnavigate the globe. This was
not done to find new worlds to conquer, but to merely
prove the new found knowledge by applying it to practical
navigation. Advanced understanding was the pearl of great
price in this age.
The momentous scientific and cultural development was
also reflected in the spiritual sphere where it gave rise
to the Christian era with the advent of Christ Jesus.
This occurred at the very end of the development period
where new concepts of a still more profound nature were
introduced, than those for calculating the circumference
of the earth. Christ Jesus overturned countless age old
concepts about rigid physical laws and demonstrated a
more advanced concept of law or fundamental principle by
way of spiritual healing. It is extremely natural,
against this background, that the most spiritually minded
advanced scientific thinker of this period would predict
with a great sense of certainty the end of all evil in
the world as the inevitable consequence of mankind's
continuing cultural and scientific development. The
Apostle John, the beloved disciple of Christ Jesus, was
such the person who made this prediction. His metaphoric
prediction can be found at the very end of the book of
Revelation in the Bible, or the Apocalypse as it is often
called.
|