Heredity: Fact or theory?

Who did she think she was to say that? That was my indignant response to reading a statement Mary Baker Eddy made in her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”: “Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin theories upon; ...” (p. 228).

All that I’d learned when I was working in the medical and science fields corroborated the view that heredity was no theory, but fact! Every medical form asks about the patient’s family history of certain diseases. And it’s commonly thought that if someone in that person’s family has or has had a condition, others in the family will have it, too.

Well, after I calmed down a bit, I realized Mrs. Eddy was able to make that statement because she’d proven it in her own healing practice of Christian Science. Her experience had shown heredity to be a theory. I’d been reading Mrs. Eddy’s writings on a regular basis to gain a better understanding of myself as the spiritual offspring of God. I’d been touched by Christian Science in a deep way – I’d been healed of a life-threatening medical condition (see “Diagnosed cancer healed,” Christian Science Sentinel, Jan. 8, 2001) – and was beginning to trust that Mrs. Eddy knew what she was talking about.

Fast forward several months. I was feeling uncomfortable from a very itchy skin rash. It had been around for a few days, and it wasn’t going away on its own. It occurred to me that my mother had several times experienced the same skin condition. I was about to accept that as the cause of my problem when I recalled that statement about heredity quoted earlier. That stopped me in my proverbial tracks. If it is true that heredity is simply a “subject for mortal belief to pin theories upon,” then I didn’t have to suffer from something that my mother had had!

Heredity couldn’t be the cause of my problem if it was just a material theory or supposition linking a condition to material lineage. I began to reason with what I was learning from the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them ... . And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (verses 27, 28, 31).

Also, I’d been learning “the scientific statement of being” from Science and Health, which says in part, “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. ... Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual” (p. 468).

I could see I was actually God’s, Spirit’s, spiritual image and likeness – not a material offspring of a material mother, but Spirit’s likeness. Spirit is incorporeal and completely good, so there is nothing in Spirit out of which to create matter, a material body, or any type of disease. Of course, humanly speaking, I was my mother’s child, but on a higher level, a spiritual level, I was God’s image and likeness. And I could claim that spiritual heritage, that only true heritage, as a present fact.

A couple of hours later, I realized the rash had completely disappeared. And I’ve never suffered from that problem again.

What we believe and understand affects our health and well-being. And understanding that the true makeup of our being is spiritual qualities from God can make all the difference in realizing that it’s not natural, not our true heritage, to be susceptible to material ailments.

A DNA kit or an ancestry package can never reveal the actual story of anyone. In reality, each of us is God’s own precious child, made in the image and likeness of our divine Father-Mother. We are spiritual and perfect, which we can prove as we are willing to consider the spiritual facts rather than accepting theories such as heredity.

Adapted from an article published in the Aug. 31, 2020, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.