Christian Science is a system of religious thought and practice developed by Mary Baker Eddy based on her study of the Bible and explained in her work Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures. In it, Eddy describes the teachings of Jesus as a complete and coherent divine science. Its adherents may be, but are not required to be, members of the main church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, a branch church, or both. Its central texts are the Bible and Science and Health.
The major teachings of Christian Science include the belief that spiritual reality is the only reality and all else is illusion or "error." In contrast to conventional Christian theology, Christian Science rejects both the common Christian views of the atonement and the concept of Hell as a place of eternal punishment.
Christian Scientists believe that sickness and disease are the result of fear, ignorance, or sin, and should be healed through prayer or introspection. Combined with a belief that the use of medicine is incompatible with Christian Science healing methods, this has led to outbreaks of preventable disease and a number of deaths. Its claim that sickness can be healed through prayer rather than medicine, its rejection of science as illusory, and its attempts to present itself as science make Christian Science a pseudoscience.
Read more about Christian Science: Theology, Medicine and Science, Social Views, Church of Christ, Scientist, Christian Science Monitor, Journal and Sentinel
Famous quotes containing the words christian and/or science:
“Is discord going to show itself while we are still fighting, is the Jew once again worth less than another? Oh, it is sad, very sad, that once more, for the umpteenth time, the old truth is confirmed: “What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews.””
—Anne Frank (1929–1945)
“It is unheard-of, uncivilized barbarism that any woman should still be forced to bear such monstrous torture. It should be remedied. It should be stopped. It is simply absurd that, with our modern science, painless childbirth does not exist as a matter of course.... I tremble with indignation when I think of ... the unspeakable egotism and blindness of men of science who permit such atrocities when they can be remedied.”
—Isadora Duncan (1878–1927)