{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 163/1915-08-23/p021","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"> And the Greeks and Romans would also have concluded that the meaningful production of a *Faust* on the part of a creator could most probably—or even quite certainly—equally prove the existence of a world-creator if the whole proof or metaphor or line of reasoning were not so unspeakably foolish. I could never even bring myself to believe that the marvelous build of a mosquito could be the product of chance in a materialistic sense. The chance material production of a mosquito is just as improbable as that of Faust. Darwinism has not really lessened the incomprehensibilities. But the headwork on the part of a God Who would have had to organize not merely \\(3\\) times \\(100,000\\) elements or letters (with repetitions) but all the elements that make up the cosmos an endless number of times (with repetitions) is, if possible, even more improbable for human conceiving (and we really have no other!) than a chance production of *Faust*. I have no wish to extend my calculations to figuring out the degree of the improbability of a world- dominion and providence.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"1. Probability and Chance, Fritz Mauthner's Studies of Improbability","site_heading":null,"date":"1915-08-23","location":null,"word_count":181,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/163/1915-08-23/p021","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Marjorie Spock","identified_edition":"AP1988","book_title":"Chance, Providence and Necessity","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA163/English/AP1988/19150823p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/163/1915-08-23/p021"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/163/1915-08-23/p021","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1915-08-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 163/1915-08-23/p013","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/163/1915-08-23/p013"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["reader"],"reader_german":["GA 163/1915-08-23/p013"],"reader_part":true,"length_check":{"de_words":325,"en_words":341,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 163/1915-08-23/p013","passage_number":13,"text":"Sie sehen, die Wahrscheinlichkeit, daß der «Faust» auf diese Weise hervorgeht, ist nicht 1/6 oder 1/36 und so weiter, sondern sie ist gleich dem Bruch, der entsteht, wenn ich 1 dividiere durch 100 mal 100 mal 100 und so weiter, und das 300000mal mache; das ist ein Bruch mit einem, wie Sie sich vorstellen können, riesigen Nenner; das heißt, diese Wahrscheinlichkeit ist eine ungeheuer winzige. Mauthner sagt weiter: «Das ist auf einen Bruch, dessen Zähler 1 ist, dessen Nenner eine ganze Zahl von 600 000 Ziffern. Auch die Einbildungskraft der Inder» — die Mauthner für sehr groß hält -, «auch das mathematische Genie des Archimedes könnte diesen Nenner nicht fassen. Seine Zahl ist namenlos. Also waren die Griechen und Römer im Recht, wenn sie die zufällige Herstellung eines wohlgeordneten Ganzen für äußerst unwahrscheinlich erklärten. Die Grenze der Unmöglichkeit ist erreicht.» Aber nur für das menschliche Vorstellen — meint er. Man kann sich das nicht vorstellen, daß der «Faust» auf diese Weise entstände. «Und die Griechen und Römer hätten auch den Schluß, daß also die sinnreiche Herstellung des «Faust» durch einen Schöpfer höchstwahrscheinlich oder so gut wie gewiß sei, mit dem gleichen Rechte auf die Existenz eines Weltschöpfers übertragen können, wenn nur diese Übertragung oder Metapher, wenn nur die ganze Fragestellung nicht so unsäglich albern wäre. Nichts liegt mir ja ferner als der Glaube an die zufällige Entstehung auch nur des Wunderbaues einer Mücke im Sinne des Materialismus. Durch materiellen Zufall ist die Entstehung einer Mücke ebenso unwahrscheinlich, wie die des «Faust». Der Darwinismus hat an den Unbegreiflichkeiten wirklich nicht viel geändert. Aber die Kopfarbeit des lieben Gottes, der nicht dreimal hunderttausend Elemente oder Buchstaben (mit Wiederholungen), sondern die Elemente der Welt unendlich mal (mit Wiederholungen) zu ordnen gehabt hätte, ist für Menschenvorstellung — wir haben wirklich keine andere — doch womöglich noch unwahrscheinlicher als eine zufällige Entstehung des «Faust». Ich mag meine Rechnerei nicht auf den Grad der Unwahrscheinlichkeit einer Weltregierung und einer Vorsehung ausdehnen.»","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":325,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/163/1915-08-23/p013"}],"english":["GA 163/1915-08-23/p020","GA 163/1915-08-23/p021"],"method":"reader","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":325,"en_words":341,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["reader"],"reader_german":["GA 163/1915-08-23/p013"],"reader_part":true},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.97,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5067,"original_word_count":5225,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Marjorie Spock","identified_edition":"AP1988","book_title":"Chance, Providence and Necessity","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA163/English/AP1988/19150823p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 163/1915-08-23/p013"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}