“Christian Scientists seem to me to be altogether too simple. Granted that all the evils are illusions, still the existence of that illusion would be a real evil and presumably a real evil permitted by God. That brings us back to exactly the same point as we began from. We have gained nothing by the theory. We are still faced with a great mystery, not explained, but coloured, transmuted, all through the Cross. Faith, not wild over-simplifications, is what will help, don’t you think?” – C.S. Lewis
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I was a Christian Scientist for years. It seemed they did a better job accounting for the problem of evil than most, but only when it comes from within.
Interesting observation. Thanks for sharing.
Former Christian Scientist here. I had the exact same criticism. Whenever I would bring it up, people would just reiterate that it’s an illusion, totally missing the antithesis.
A related problem is that if you posit that the world doesn’t exist, then you get to assert
whatever you want to be true. Metaphysicians besides Christian Scientists have tried to infer
what the world must be like from logical principles (but no sensory evidence) with usually
not-so-good results.
Mathematicians have found some interesting logical necessities like the sporadic groups, but
that’s not enough for a religion. Try to figure out ethics or the nature of God from pure logic
and you won’t get far.