SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION - The Mary Baker Eddy Science Institute

deductive, deducing the universe from its revealed Principle, God.“Divinely defined, Science is the atmosphere of God; humanlyconstrued, and according to Webster, it is ' knowledge, duly arrangedand referred to general truths and principles on which it is founded,and from which it is derived.‟ I employ this awe-filled word in both adivine and human sense” (No 9:25). The distinction can be set out infour steps:scientific method in the sciences:(1) observation (2) hypothesis (3) testing (4) lawscientific method in Science:(1) revelation ( 2) translation (3) demonstration (4) interpretation.In the physical sciences, the first step is to obtain information fromaccurately measured observations under controlled conditions;second, these observations suggest a possible explanation, so ahypothesis (2) is put forward - postulated - for testing (step 3). Fourth,if the hypothesis is confirmed incontrovertibly by tests, it is acceptedas fact and is dignified by the name of a law or a theory. If notconfirmed, then back to the laboratory.The Science of Spirit also is amenable to scientific method, eventhough its data are spiritual ideas and not observations from matter.Instead, the first step - that of seeking information - is to be open torevelation, to hear God speak in His own logic. Second, a Christfunction translates and reasons this general Truth into specific truths,enforcing their acceptance in consciousness. Third, there is selfoperativeproof or spontaneous demonstration (though the individualmay think of it as himself making a demonstration).The fourth step isthat Science explains and interprets itself as law - as the foreveroperation of the law of God. (Again, as with the physical sciences, ifthe initial assumption is not at first confirmed in proof, the Scientistmust go back to his starting point and acquaint himself better with thegreat First Cause.)What distinguishes the Christian Scientist from the physical scientistis the way each regards the phenomena before him. In the view ofChristian Science, the noumenon is God, the Supreme Being, whileall phenomena are the expression of God's being; “All is infinite Mindand its infinite manifestation” (S & H 468:10). All the materialsciences, however, begin with the assumption that the objects being48