Christian Science: erroneous beliefs about it.

  • Thread starter Thread starter JK8619
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

JK8619

Guest
I know a lot of people do not know much about the Christian Science church. It seems most of what people think they know about it is way off. It reminds me of the ignorant and untrue things we here about the Catholic Church. Even here I’ve noticed some bad info people have posted.

The main thing that I hear from people is that they think taking medication or getting any kind of medical treatment is against CS doctrine. This is not true. To put it into as few words as possible, they believe that God’s will is more effective than medicine, so people should try prayer first. If that doesn’t work, there is nothing wrong with medical treatment, especially in emergency situations.

The founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, never put any restrictions on medicine and the official church position has never prohibited taking meds. There is a minority within the CS church that has taken some of the churches views to the extreme, but that is very uncommon.
 
JK8619 said:
The main thing that I hear from people is that they think taking medication or getting any kind of medical treatment is against CS doctrine. This is not true. To put it into as few words as possible, they believe that God’s will is more effective than medicine, so people should try prayer first. If that doesn’t work, there is nothing wrong with medical treatment, especially in emergency situations.
Click to expand...
I don’t even have enough conceptions about Christian Science to have misconceptions about it. Now that you metnion it I know very little of Christian Scientists.

I wonder if the people talking about medication are thinking of Scientologists? Very different groups, but one could see how they could be nominally confused.
 
I often see Christian Scientists and Scientologists confused. They are TOTALLY different.
 
JK8619 said:
I know a lot of people do not know much about the Christian Science church. It seems most of what people think they know about it is way off. It reminds me of the ignorant and untrue things we here about the Catholic Church. Even here I’ve noticed some bad info people have posted.

The main thing that I hear from people is that they think taking medication or getting any kind of medical treatment is against CS doctrine. This is not true. To put it into as few words as possible, they believe that God’s will is more effective than medicine, so people should try prayer first. If that doesn’t work, there is nothing wrong with medical treatment, especially in emergency situations.

The founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, never put any restrictions on medicine and the official church position has never prohibited taking meds. There is a minority within the CS church that has taken some of the churches views to the extreme, but that is very uncommon.
Click to expand...
Christian Science has some unorthodox beliefs with regard to the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, the existence of heaven and hell, rewards and punishment, and social/moral issues such as abortion and homosexuality, compared to more mainstream Christianity. The issue of medication for treating disease is but one non-traditional feature of this religion. There is also an interesting offshoot of Christian Science, referred to as religious science or the science of mind, which was formulated by Raymond Charles Barker among others.
 
meltzerboy said:
Christian Science has some unorthodox beliefs with regard to the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, the existence of heaven and hell, rewards and punishment, and social/moral issues such as abortion and homosexuality, compared to more mainstream Christianity. The issue of medication for treating disease is but one non-traditional feature of this religion. There is also an interesting offshoot of Christian Science, referred to as religious science or the science of mind, which was formulated by Raymond Charles Barker among others.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it’s definitely unorthodox, but not as crazy as a lot of people make it out to be. I’ve heard several Protestants refer to Christian Science as a cult, which is ridiculous. Also, officially they do not have a position on abortion homosexuality. Most who practice CS are against those things, but they also tolerate it more.
 
Hi, JK8619,

You have presented an interesting post.

You start out with a statement, “…people do not know much about the Christian Science church”, call them ignorant for posting false information and then make a statement about how is acceptable to take medication after praying about doing this. I really do not know what it is you are addressing:

1.) Ignorance of CS: well here is a link to their own web site: christianscience.com/
And here is a link for ‘recovering’ and former CS individuals: christianway.org/
And finally, here are two critiques of the CS: rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/science.htm and jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Christian%20Scientist/unchristian.htm

2.) Do you have infromation that you want presented about CS other then it is all right to take medication?

I have only had interactions with a few CS people and none of these intereactions left me with a positive view of Mary Eddy as a sane person, or about the personal interpretations that at least these members of CS had.

What is it you would like us to understand about CS?

God bless
JK8619 said:
I know a lot of people do not know much about the Christian Science church. It seems most of what people think they know about it is way off. It reminds me of the ignorant and untrue things we here about the Catholic Church. Even here I’ve noticed some bad info people have posted.

The main thing that I hear from people is that they think taking medication or getting any kind of medical treatment is against CS doctrine. This is not true. To put it into as few words as possible, they believe that God’s will is more effective than medicine, so people should try prayer first. If that doesn’t work, there is nothing wrong with medical treatment, especially in emergency situations.

The founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, never put any restrictions on medicine and the official church position has never prohibited taking meds. There is a minority within the CS church that has taken some of the churches views to the extreme, but that is very uncommon.
Click to expand...
 
I’m not sure why these threads were merged…the OP of one was discussing Christian Science, and the OP of the other was asking for information about Scientology.
:confused:
 
anp1215 said:
I’m not sure why these threads were merged…the OP of one was discussing Christian Science, and the OP of the other was asking for information about Scientology.
:confused:
Click to expand...
Yeah, I’m not sure what’s up with that either. If someone wants to know the difference between Christian Science and Scientology, they should make a separate thread.
 
I thought they were seprertate threads before. At least I am not losing it 👍
 
tqualey said:
Hi, JK8619,

You have presented an interesting post.

You start out with a statement, “…people do not know much about the Christian Science church”, call them ignorant for posting false information and then make a statement about how is acceptable to take medication after praying about doing this. I really do not know what it is you are addressing:

1.) Ignorance of CS: well here is a link to their own web site: christianscience.com/
And here is a link for ‘recovering’ and former CS individuals: christianway.org/
And finally, here are two critiques of the CS: rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/science.htm and jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Christian%20Scientist/unchristian.htm

2.) Do you have infromation that you want presented about CS other then it is all right to take medication?

I have only had interactions with a few CS people and none of these intereactions left me with a positive view of Mary Eddy as a sane person, or about the personal interpretations that at least these members of CS had.

What is it you would like us to understand about CS?

God bless
Click to expand...
  1. I never made references to any posts.
  2. I did not “make a statement about how is acceptable to take medication after praying about doing this.” I pointed out that they are completely free to take medication if they wish. The claim that taking medication is against the rules of Christian Science is the most common misconception about Christian Science.
  3. The first link you listed is an ok starting point if you are interested in learning about Christian Science. The last three sites, in addition to the fact that they look like they were put together by a child, are nothing more than anti-CS Propaganda. They refer to Christian Science as a cult, which it absolutely is not. One of them even uses wikipedia for a source.
  4. We have all heard anti-Catholic propaganda. It is something that we do not appreciate. Although, we may not agree with other churches, it is not a reason to spread lies and propaganda about them. You should be able to discredit a false religion with the truth and in a respectful manner.
The medication thing is probably the most common piece of misinformation out there about CS. It also bothers me when people refer to Christian Science as a cult or mistake it for scientology. Although I am not into CS myself, I am probably a bit more touchy on the issue because there are people who I have been close to that are. Most importantly for me, my one grandmother went to a CS church (my other three grandparents were/are all Catholic). I have never met anyone with higher moral standards or more faith than her, so I really do not like when people spread false information about what she believed in.

Anti-Jewish propaganda also bothers me quite a bit, but now days anyone who has the least bit of intelligence and education has the resources to see through it.

I really don’t like any anti-whatever religion propaganda, but some hits closer to home than others. The purpose of this thread is to encourage people to learn the truth and not believe false beliefs and lies about this Christian denomination that people I care about have been a part of.

Thank you for your questions,
JK
 
I used to get the Christian Science movement and Scientology confused. I no longer do that after having read a little about the Christian Science movement. That said, I do hope and pray that all members of the Christian Science movement will wake up to the errors in their doctrine and convert to Catholicism which is the one true Church.
 
Hi, JK,

Well, if you did not like the links I provided and you decry false information about CS - why not simply provide a link (can’t be a web site designed by a chid or use Wiki as a source) to give us the accurate information? 🙂 Thanks.

God bless
JK8619 said:
  1. I never made references to any posts.
  2. I did not “make a statement about how is acceptable to take medication after praying about doing this.” I pointed out that they are completely free to take medication if they wish. The claim that taking medication is against the rules of Christian Science is the most common misconception about Christian Science.
  3. The first link you listed is an ok starting point if you are interested in learning about Christian Science. The last three sites, in addition to the fact that they look like they were put together by a child, are nothing more than anti-CS Propaganda. They refer to Christian Science as a cult, which it absolutely is not. One of them even uses wikipedia for a source.
  4. We have all heard anti-Catholic propaganda. It is something that we do not appreciate. Although, we may not agree with other churches, it is not a reason to spread lies and propaganda about them. You should be able to discredit a false religion with the truth and in a respectful manner.
The medication thing is probably the most common piece of misinformation out there about CS. It also bothers me when people refer to Christian Science as a cult or mistake it for scientology. Although I am not into CS myself, I am probably a bit more touchy on the issue because there are people who I have been close to that are. Most importantly for me, my one grandmother went to a CS church (my other three grandparents were/are all Catholic). I have never met anyone with higher moral standards or more faith than her, so I really do not like when people spread false information about what she believed in.

Anti-Jewish propaganda also bothers me quite a bit, but now days anyone who has the least bit of intelligence and education has the resources to see through it.

I really don’t like any anti-whatever religion propaganda, but some hits closer to home than others. The purpose of this thread is to encourage people to learn the truth and not believe false beliefs and lies about this Christian denomination that people I care about have been a part of.

Thank you for your questions,
JK
Click to expand...
 
The book Kingdom of the Cults has a great chapter on the fasle doctrines taught by this religion.
 
I have attended Scientist meetings for worship with CS friends…except for Friends, they have one of the most simple worship services I’ve ever been to.

As far as medication…while they do not run to the doctor with every sniffle and ache…they do use medical assistance when needed.

I believe there is a passage in the S&H that covers this…and while they do believe God can heal and it is God’s will that we be whole…they will resort to medical treaments when necessary…we are caught up in this “material” world…so using “material” methods of healing is not out of the question.

That all things temporal are “falsehoods” and the only thing truly eternal is God, Mind, Love appears to me to be a 19th early 20th century version of “Course in Miracles”…which to me is an “updated” Science and Health. At least that is how I “organize” my thoughts concerning Christian Science.

Except for my friends going to Christian Science Practitioners when ill, they tend to be not too much different than othe Christians.

I use their Bible Lesson resources at times as devotional resources.
 
cajunhillbilly said:
The book Kingdom of the Cults has a great chapter on the fasle doctrines taught by this religion.
Click to expand...
I never really liked Walter Martins writings…he had some controversy in his ministry…with the SDA’s and embrace the “Word of Faith” phenomena…I felt “Kindom of the Cults” was more sensationalistic than accurate…but I’m not really into trying to tear down other faith traditions.🤷
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top