Frequently
Asked Questions
1. What
is Religious Science?
2. What
Does Your "V" Symbol Mean?
3. What
About Meditation?
4.
What About Prayer?
5. What
is An Affirmation?
6.
What About Sin?
7. What
About Evil?
8. Do
You Believe in the Devil?
9. What
About Heaven and Hell?
10. What
About Death?
11. Do
You Believe in Reincarnation?
12. Do
You Believe in Miracles?
13. Do
You Believe in Jesus Christ?
14. Are
You Christians?
15. Is
This New Age?
16. Is
This Related to Scientology?
17. Is
This a Cult?
18. Is
This Christian Science?
19. Do
You Go to Doctors?
20. Why
is This Called Religious Science?
21. Are
Religious Science and Science of Mind the Same?
What
is Religious Science?
Religious Science is a spiritual philosophy
for the modern man and woman. It is based on the Truth which arises
in every culture in the form of science, philosophy, and religion.
Religious Science views religion as a source of wisdom for revealing
the Truth about the seemingly unknown forces that shape our universe.
This enables us to participate in our own life as a co-creator
with the Divine. Religious Science was founded by Dr. Ernest Holmes,
a self-taught philosopher who rigorously studied all of the world's
Spiritual paths for most of his life. In 1927, he wrote The Science
of Mind, which synthesized the truths that he discerned were present
throughout all of the world's faiths. That book is the foundation
of the principles of Religious Science. He never intended to begin
a new faith, but was persuaded to allow a church to be created
to assure that the principles he synthesized would outlive him.
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What
Does Your "V" Symbol Mean?
The V symbol of Religious Science can be interpreted
on many different levels. On a Universal level, the top of the
V shows the Universal Spirit (God), then the universal subjectivity,
which is the medium of all thought, power, and action, then, at
the bottom, at particularization of our manifestation of Spirit.
The point drawn through the center symbolizes
the descent of Spirit into matter, or form. It is necessary that
Spirit be manifested in order to express Itself. The descending
line shows that all comes from the One (God)). Humanity reenacts
the whole Universal Life, and the nature of humanity is identical
with Spirit. What is true of the Whole is true of any of its individual
undivided parts. Humanity comes to a point of individualization
in the Whole and is subject to the Law of the Whole. (Paraphrased
from The Science of Mind by Dr. Ernest Holmes, p. 569.)
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What
About Meditation?
Meditation is the time honored technique for
taming, training and transforming the mind. Religious Science
endorses all forms of meditation, from creative visualization
to the more traditional mind stilling techniques. It is through
meditation that we come into a state of God communion and thereby
experience a greater sense of unity of all life.
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What
About Prayer?
Religious Science honors and endorses all forms
of sincere prayer. In addition, it teaches a unique and scientific
form of prayer called Spiritual Mind Treatment. This is a powerful,
affirmative method of prayer that was developed by Dr. Ernest
Holmes, the founder of Religious Science. It involves a five step
process that embodies all of the elements of the creative process
of Life itself.
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What
is An Affirmation?
The term affirmation is normally associated
with a verbal statement that is made about some goal that we are
trying to achieve, or some experience we desire to have. However,
the act of affirmation is really much more than that. It is an
act of faith. It is the ability to put aside your doubt and fear
in order to act as if your desired goal were already a reality.
In this sense, an affirmation can be any statement, act, or symbolic
gesture that affirms the reality of your intentions. Through the
process of affirmation we "act as if" our highest aspirations
were already a reality.
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What
About Sin?
The original meaning of sin was simply to fall
short of or "miss the mark" of spiritual perfection.
A sin is not a thing, it is merely an activity that produces an
undesirable effect in our lives. In other words, we are punished
by our sins, not for them.
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What
About Evil?
Religious Science does not deny the appearance
of evil. However, it teaches that evil does not exist as a force
or power in the world. That which is called evil is merely the
obstruction, or inversion, of the only power acting, which is
Spirit. The obstruction of Spirit's expression always occurs in
the mind through the holding of false beliefs. According to Religious
Science, the only presence acting in the universe is God, which
is always Good. Evil is merely the way that we withhold our expression
and experience of that good by accepting false beliefs into our
minds.
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Do
You Believe in the Devil?
Religious Science believes that, since the only
power acting anywhere is God, the devil simply cannot exist as
a force acting in opposition to God's expression through Spirit.
Therefore, there really is no devil. There is only the manifestation
of falsely held beliefs within our minds, which produces that
appearance of some sinister invisible force, or being, acting
in our lives. To blame unpleasant conditions and circumstances
on the devil, or anyone else, is a way of avoiding responsibility
for our own experience of life.
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Do
You Believe in Heaven and Hell?
Religious Science believes that heaven and hell
are states of mind. We experience heaven when we are in harmony
with the Life that surrounds us.
Hell is a state of mind that we experience when
we don't understand why something unpleasant is happening to us.
We can choose to create our own heaven or hell on Earth, and take
our beliefs with us when we go through the transition the world
calls death to the next plane of existence.
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What
About Death?
Religious Science teaches the eternality of
life. It accepts that our physical bodies operate within a natural
cycle of birth and death. However, even though we may have a body,
we are not just our body. What we really are is the Life that
animates our body, and that Life is infinite and immortal. As
we become increasing identified with our divine and eternal nature,
our underlying fear of death begins to dissolve and our experience
of life become more joyous.
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Do
You Believe in Reincarnation?
Religious Science neither endorses nor rejects
any particular theory or concept of reincarnation. Since life
is eternal, there are an unlimited number of possibilities for
its evolvement after the experience of physical death. In Religious
Science, we accept the on-goingness of life and we deal with what
is before us in the present moment.
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Do
You Believe in Miracles?
Everything that occurs in our lives is simply
the out-picturing of our consciousness operating through the Law
of Mind. Therefore, those events that seem to be miraculous in
nature are actually the Law acting at a level beyond our awareness.
As we evolve our consciousness, what previously seemed miraculous
becomes a natural, normal and understandable way of life. In actuality,
there is only one miracle, this is Life itself.Top of Page
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Do
You Believe in Jesus Christ?
In Religious Science, Christ is viewed as a
universal principle rather than a person. It is the principle
of God expressing through humanity. Jesus of Nazareth was a human
personality through which the Christ Principle, or Divine Personality,
expressed itself on Earth. The principle of Jesus Christ represents
the mystical marriage of our inner spirit with our outer personality.
This union produces an expression of Life that includes both,
yet is greater than either. The potential for this expression
lies within each one of us. Therefore, Jesus is viewed as a great
example for humanity, rather than the great exception. Ernest
Holmes, founder of the philosophy of Religious Science, says:
"Religious Science does not deny the divinity
of Jesus; but it does affirm the divinity of all people. It does
not deny that Jesus was the son of God; but affirms that all beings
are children of God. It does not deny that the Kingdom of God
was revealed through Jesus; but affirms that the Kingdom of God
is also revealed through you and me."
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Are
You Christians?
Ernest Holmes, the founder of Religious Science,
came out of a Christian tradition. He studied all of the world's
religions, and synthesized what he saw to be the truths running
through them all, free of any particular dogma. He began the philosophy
with the intention that all churches, especially Christian ones,
would embrace the philosophy and incorporate those teachings into
their own. When that did not happen on a large-scale basis, he
allowed the people around him to talk him into starting a church
to make sure that the teachings would endure. His original intention
was not to start a new religion. Religious Science comes out of
the Christian tradition in the sense that we believe in the teachings
of Jesus and use them to create a "Heaven on Earth".
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Is
This New Age?
Religious Science is a New Thought philosophy.
Although many people with New Age leanings are attracted to Religious
Science and some of the practices of Religious Science such as
meditation are also practiced by those who consider themselves
New Age, Religious Science does not consider itself a New Age
Religion. Religious Science honors all paths that lead to God,
whether they be Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, New
Age, or any other spiritual paths.
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Is
This Related to Scientology?
No. Religious Science should never be confused
with Scientology.
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Is
This a Cult?
No. Religious Science teaches that each individual
has the power over and the responsibility for his or her own life.
Religious Science highly discourages the following of or dependence
upon any one person, including founder Ernest Holmes or any present
ministers or teachers. Religious Science challenges people to
think for themselves and only believe what rings true for them.
One must look into one's own heart for truth.
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Is
This Christian Science?
No. Ernest Holmes studied with many of the spiritual
leaders of his time, including Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of
Christian Science. Religious Science attracts many from the Christian
Science tradition.
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Do
You Go to Doctors?
Yes. Religious Scientists believe that all is
God, and that God is expressed through doctors and medicine just
as God is expressed through all of the physical universe. Religious
Science believes in spiritual as well as physical healing, and
Religious Science Practitioners often work in conjunction with
doctors and other physical and mental health practitioners to
facilitate healing.
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Why
is This Called Religious Science?
Ernest Holmes used the terms "Science of
Mind", which he called the book that describes his synthesis
of the truths running through all of the religions of the world,
and "Religious Science" interchangeably. He believed
that religion and science were truly complementary, and named
his organization the Church of Religious Science to show that.
He believed that, eventually, science would prove what the mystics
have been saying for thousands of years about the nature of God,
human beings, and the Universe. His beliefs have been borne out
by many modern scientists, who have found that the universe is
truly made up of energy. Religious Science, along with all of
the mystics of the ages, knows that that energy is God.
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Are
Religious Science and Science of Mind the Same?
Yes.
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