The
Science Beyond Religion
even the religion of Christian
Science
The research book series, Discovering Infinity, that is presented on this Web-site is based on an idea that began to take shape in the late 1870s through the work of a New England woman named Mary Baker (1816-1910).
Mary Baker was a farmer's daughter who grew up during America's great cultural and scientific renaissance, a time when many old perceptions were challenged; when thought surged ahead to probe and embrace the infinite. It was a time when once even iron clad limits were overturned. It was a time of optimism, great achievements, and breakthroughs in scientific perception. It was also a time when the validity of religion was challenged. Mary Baker, herself, like a rebel challenged the rigid and irrational notions that have crept into the sphere of Christianity, challenging her own family's beliefs. Fortunately, her family also embraced the scientific development of the age and its focus on scholarly attainments. In this atmosphere she became more focused on the truth than religion, on the scientific understanding of fundamental principle upon which all regions must ultimately unite across the boundaries of their individualities. After all, there is only one truth which is manifest in universal principles, and one single humanity which is the tallest manifest of life on the planet.
Mary Baker's historic contribution to human development lies not so much in her scientific rediscovery of the once lost element of Christ healing. This is what she is honoured for in modern times, under her later name of Mary Baker Eddy, as the internationally recognized discoverer and founder of Christian Science. Unfortunately, this is all that she is honoured for. But her goal was larger and her achievement greater than what is being recognized today. In her own time, she expected that her demonstrable discoveries of scientific Christian healing would unite many of the more advanced Christian Churches on the platform of one fundamental truth. This didn't happen. Nevertheless, this is the foundation on which her own discovery is founded.
This foundation is a universal structure for scientific discovery that appear to have its root in scientific tradition of the Greek classical culture. This structure is plainly imbedded in the Apostle John's description of the city foursquare in Revelation 21. John presents a four square structure, a matrix structure, the kind of structure for the scientific ordering of discoveries of fundamental principles and their larger interrelationships. It is recognized today by leading edge researchers that all of her major works were virtually from their beginning structured in accordance with this fundamental structure for scientific development and discovery.
With being recognized, it is plain to see that her major importance is not related to what she has personally created in the past, and established in terms of her church for Christian healing. Her major importance is her contribution to the future through her advanced development of the method for making fundamental discoveries of truth that is based on a structural foundation that can be traced back to the most explosive age of scientific development that ever was, that unfolded in the Greek Classical culture.
It may be this foundation, which demands one to be honest with oneself about the truth, that the vast cultural, religious, and economic divisions can be bridged, which today are being exploited to manipulate the world into a "clash of civilizations" that threaten to bring about a new dark age.
When this breakthrough will take place cannot be determined. It can happen tomorrow, it can also be delayed so that it won't happen in our lifetime. It all depends on how seriously humanity is interested in choosing prosperity and freedom over a new dark age. Ultimately the divisions that are destroying our society at the present time will be bridged, and they will be bridged by an honest rallying around the single standard of validated fundamental truth. Mary Baker Eddy's work in developing the foundation for this larger scientific renaissance is her greatest legacy, even though this element of her achievements remains largely unknown and rejected by the still too shallow minds of the present day promoters of her scientific work.
Actually, I am getting
ahead of myself here.