Fruitage from Univ of Southern Florida lecture

University of Central Florida (Orlando) Classroom Talk
Lecturer: Elise L. Moore, C.S.B.
Class: Religion & Medicine
February 10, 2009

This is the second year in a row that a Christian Science lecturer has been a guest speaker for the Religion and Medicine class at University of Central Florida (UCF) as part of joint Orlando/Longwood lecture activities.
Twenty-nine students were in attendance for the class. The instructor had asked that they prepare for the talk by going on-line to www.spirituality.com and reading Chapter XIV, Recapitulation, from Science and Health. Two members of the lecture committees from Longwood and Orlando who are also students at UCF, attended the talk to distribute Bibles, Science and Healths, video the question and answer session, and to provide other support to Elise as needed.
The talk presented by Elise was “The Christianity of Christian Science”. She focused on the Biblical foundations of Christian Science for the first half of the talk. The students were each provided with a copy of the King James Version of the Bible at the beginning of the class. Students were asked to look up references she referred to and participate by reading the verse(s) aloud. For the second half of the talk, a copy of Science and Health was provided to each student to refer to. Students were encouraged to ask questions while Elise was presenting. All of the students were very attentive and there was good participation among the several who volunteered to read aloud the references.
The formal talk lasted a little over an hour. Following a short break, a question and answer period followed for another hour. The questions (see following page) were thoughtful and showed a genuine interest in the ideas shared during the talk. One misperception of the instructor about Christian Science that was corrected by the talk was that Science and Health was “the Bible” for our church. She relayed this to Elise following the talk and was happy to hear about the Biblical foundations upon which Christian Science is based.
At the end of class, students were invited to keep the books that had been distributed:
9 Bibles and 19 Science and Healths were kept by the students. They were also provided with bookmarks that had information about Orlando and Longwood church services and Reading Rooms, the Sunday Christian Science Sentinel radio program, and website resources on Christian Science.



Questions Asked:
1. What is the difference between Christianity and Christian Science?
2. Is what you do similar to Benny Hinn, the televangelist?
3. At what point will a Christian Scientist use medical intervention?
4. Why does it [Christian Science healing] have to be either/or – why not both?
5. So Christian Scientists don’t follow recommended yearly checkups for health?
6. (Follow-up to Q. 5) So do they take responsibility for their own actions towards their health, such as diet, etc.?
7. There was a publicized case of an 11-yr old non-Christian Scientist child who died because the parents didn’t seek medical treatment, what do you say about that?
8. If illness and sickness are illusion or fear, what about children who are born ill?
9. If a person who is a Christian Scientist dies and is 80 years old, is it considered a failed attempt?
10. (Regarding the experience related of a Christian Scientist in a hospital who was in a coma and for the first 3 days only roused when a Christian Science practitioner and a certain nurse spoke with her) Why wasn’t the arousal from the coma permanent when it first happened?
11. If there have been so many healings, why haven’t more people jumped on the bandwagon?
12. Is fear of sharing faith, healing a cultural thing?
13. Can other denominations incorporate Christian Science?
14. Other religions, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, don’t believe in routine blood transfusions, surgery, etc. What is the Christian Science view?
15. The germ theory of disease was just being discovered about the same time as Mary Baker Eddy was writing Science and Health. Do you think she would change what she wrote now that society “knows” germs are an actual cause?
16. Is matter seen as wrong, evil, since it isn’t permanent?
17. (Referring to the Scientific Translation of Mortal Mind on p.115 in Science & Health) The 1st phase, why it doesn’t have to do with matter – it’s all focused on qualities.
18. If not matter, what does it have to do with sickness?
19. If God is good, what’s God’s purpose of creating Satan, hell?
20. What if you’re in hell forever and ever?
21. What was Mary Baker Eddy’s take on Darwin’s evolution?
22. How do you view disease as being part of the creative process, as it makes way for evolution?
23. Do you take the Bible literally?
24. (Follow-up to Q. 23) How do you know what’s inspired?
25. Do you take Noah’s ark literally, that it really happened or is it just a story?
26. Does Christian Science take political stands?
27. Is healing more reliant on the healer or the person being healed?