Science, Religion, and the Human Experience

uneasy alliances 293

I describe “God” with a capital “G” in this book but nevertheless

hope readers will understand that I am referring to all the deities of

the Judeo-Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, to

gods and goddesses, as well as to all spirits worshipped and beloved

by humans all over the world and throughout history. In my scien-

tific observations, I have observed that no matter what name you

give the Infinite Absolute you worship, no matter what theology you

ascribe to, the results of believing in God are the same.^16

What is the basis for this claim? The historical roots here actually go back
to the arguments of certain new Christian movements that emerged in the
United States in the late nineteenth century, and that placed a great emphasis
on the healing ministry dimension of the original gospel message. For these
movements—sometimes called “mind cure,” sometimes “new thought,” some-
times “Christian science,” and sometimes “practical Christianity”—healing
was one of the promised fruits of faith. Again and again, they recalled, the
Jesus of the Gospels says to those who seek him out, “Your faith has healed
you.”^17 Followers of “mind cure” thus aimed to deliberately cultivate their faith
(through chanting, visualizations, refusing to entertain negative thoughts, etc.)
in the service of health. William James, observing the movements at the turn
of the twentieth century, described them in the following way:

The blind have been made to see, the halt to walk; lifelong invalids

have had their health restored....Onehears of the “Gospel of Re-

laxation,” of the “Don’t Worry Movement,” of people who repeat to

themselves, “Youth, health, vigor!^18

Not yet taken seriously by medicine, nevertheless the message of mind-
cure broadened its audience enormously when it was incorporated into the
popular ministry of the unorthodox Methodist minister Norman Vincent Peale,
who taught millions of Americans to believe in the “power of positive think-
ing.”^19 In every one of the many books he published on positive thinking over
the years, Peale promised his followers the gifts of renewed health and vitality.
Here is a typical passage from one of them:

Smith has never again had need to revert to the habit of taking tab-

lets. He learned the amazing power of positive thinking to heal. Let

me repeat. The technique is to believe that you are going to be bet-

ter, believe that positive thinking is going to work for you, and reme-

dial forces actually will be set in motion.^20

Ironically, given his stated commitment to framing the power of positive
thinking as fundamental to the Christian message, Peale actually probably
spent more time than any other twentieth-century figure in the mind-cure
movement downplaying the need to commit to any specific Christian or other