Christianity vs. Christian Science

“Mother” Mary Baker Patterson Eddy is the founder of the Christian Science religion. Harold J. Berry writes in his What They Believe:

In 1866 she “reached the scientific certainty that all causation [all causes of pain, injuries, etc.] rests with the Mind, and that every effect is a mental phenomenon.” [Mary Eddy believed] sickness, death and even our bodies do not exist – they are only imagined. Based on this belief, she began formulating her unique interpretations of Scripture. These…were incorporated into her book Science and Health, published in 1875.

When her husband Mr. Eddy, himself a Christian Science practitioner, died of a heart attack (a heart attack that was not supposed to exist, causing a death that was supposed to be imaginary), Mrs. Eddy claimed the death of her husband was due to foul causes, “arsenic poisoning mentally administered.” Of this episode Walter Martin writes in his The Kingdom of the Cults:

Mrs. Eddy’s letter to the Boston Post dated June 5,1882, in which she accused some of her former students of mentally poisoning Asa Eddy with malicious mesmerism in the form of arsenic mentally administered is one of the most pathetic examples of Mrs. Eddy’s mental state ever recorded and one which the Christian Science Church would like to forget she ever wrote.

Although claiming many healings there is no evidence she healed anyone, and she flatly refused to heal those brought to her by medical doctors. She herself went to the medical profession for help for her own ailments, and in 1910 fell victim to the death she always feared. Prior to her death she hid from the probing press, no longer able to conceal the sickness tormenting her life.

Mrs. Eddy claimed her writings were inspired by God, but in fact many of these “inspired” publications she copied from other writers. The fact she revised her own “inspired” writings makes her claim a mockery. Nonetheless her faithful followers, about 3,000,000 worldwide, hold her writings above the Bible (which often conflict with her writings). Over the years some of these followers have died needlessly; instead of going to a doctor they placed their trust on Mrs. Eddy’s strange doctrines, the same teachings that failed Mrs. Eddy herself.