Christian Science teaches that matter is not real—that it is an illusion, a false perception rooted in error rather than truth. This worldview, founded by Mary Baker Eddy, holds that God, being entirely spiritual, could not and did not create anything material. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddy argues, “It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground” (p. 524), referring to Genesis 3:17 where God pronounces judgment upon the earth: “Cursed is the ground for thy sake.” Based on such logic, Christian Scientists reject the plain, literal meaning of Genesis 2:7, which says, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

This rejection is not a harmless doctrinal quirk—it strikes at the very heart of biblical anthropology and the doctrine of creation. The Bible clearly affirms the reality of matter and the material world as the good and intentional work of God. In Genesis 1, God repeatedly declares His creation “good,” and by the end of the sixth day, after creating man in His image, He pronounces it “very good” (Genesis 1:31). The material world—including the human body—is not illusory or irrelevant; it is the product of divine craftsmanship.

Genesis 2:7 teaches that man is a unified being comprised of both physical and spiritual elements: the dust of the ground (body) and the breath of life (spirit). The “dust” is not symbolic of some immaterial concept; it is a reference to actual physical substance. To interpret it otherwise is to force a foreign worldview onto the biblical text.

The truth of man’s material origin is further reinforced in God’s words of judgment after the Fall: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19). This statement affirms that the physical body was taken from the physical earth and, in death, returns to it. This is not metaphor but divine explanation. Similarly, Ecclesiastes 12:7 confirms this dual nature of man: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” The human person is both body and spirit—not body as illusion and spirit as the only reality, but both made by God for His glory.

To deny the material aspect of human nature is to undermine not only creation but redemption. The incarnation of Christ—the eternal Son taking on flesh—is central to the gospel. John 1:14 declares, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Jesus did not appear to be human; He was human, with a real body. After His resurrection, He told His disciples, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39). If matter were illusory, the incarnation would be impossible. But Scripture teaches that God took on a physical body to redeem both soul and body, and that believers await “the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23) in the resurrection.

In contrast, Christian Science denies the essential goodness of matter and the physical body, thereby contradicting the plain teaching of Scripture. Its view not only reinterprets Genesis but also renders key doctrines—creation, incarnation, resurrection, and bodily return of Christ—meaningless or metaphorical. A worldview that redefines matter as illusion is incompatible with biblical Christianity.

In conclusion, the Word of God affirms without ambiguity that matter is real, that the human body is created by God, and that the physical and spiritual dimensions of man together form the whole person. The biblical record does not support the idea that matter is unreal; rather, it declares that God created both the material and immaterial realms and called them good. Any teaching that denies the reality of the physical world ultimately denies the authority of Scripture, the nature of Christ, and the hope of resurrection.