{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 199/1920-09-18/p005","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"We can go a step further into the inner nature of the human soul and, from that standpoint, get some idea of the change of views in this regard. Take the various religious denominations that speak to people today in sermons and doctrine about eternity and the immortality of the soul based on their century-old traditions. One should not speak about these matters from a theoretical standpoint; one should speak from the standpoint of life itself. One should follow the nuances of feeling out of which flow most sermons and theological doctrines about the human soul's claim to eternity. I am not speaking about the content so much as the motives, intentions, and feelings that underlie what is being said in sermons and theological doctrine. It is a fact that, quite aside from what is true, a person can have the feeling, springing from an inner egotism of the soul, that the soul ought not to be destroyed along with the body! It is really an element of soul egotism that desires not to be destroyed. One cannot bear the event of dissolution; one thirsts for a continued existence of the human soul after death. It is this feeling of thirsting for immortality to which sermons and theological doctrines appeal. This gives the basis for what is spoken to people of various religious denominations about the eternity of the soul. One finds believers by making concessions to their hidden inner soul egotism. Actually, one tells such people something for which they thirst, the opposite of which they certainly do not wish to hear. By telling them of the continuation of life after death, one discovers the access to human faith. In no other way would one find this access to faith, if the human soul were not thirsting out of egotism for the soul's indestructibility after death.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture XVII","site_heading":"Prenatal Existence and the Spiritual Foundations of Human Development","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1920-09-18","location":null,"word_count":307,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/199/1920-09-18/p005","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Maria St. Goar","identified_edition":"AP1986","book_title":"Spiritual Science as a Foundation for Social Forms","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA199/English/AP1986/19200918p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","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/199/1920-09-18/p005"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/199/1920-09-18/p005","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":"1920-09-18","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 199/1920-09-18/p005","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/199/1920-09-18/p005"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 199/1920-09-18/p005"],"reader_part":true,"length_check":{"de_words":365,"en_words":363,"ratio":0.99,"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 199/1920-09-18/p005","passage_number":5,"text":"Wir können noch einen Schritt weiter nach dem Inneren der Menschenseele gehen, und dann auch von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus den Umschwung der Anschauungen in dieser Beziehung ermessen. Nehmen wir die verschiedenen Konfessionen, die heute aus ihren jahrhundertealten Traditionen heraus in Predigt und Lehre zu den Menschen sprechen von der Ewigkeit, von der Unsterblichkeit der Menschenseele. Man sollte über diese Dinge nicht von einem theoretischen Standpunkt aus sprechen, man sollte sprechen von dem Standpunkte des Lebens aus; man sollte verfolgen, aus welchen Empfindungsnuancen heraus Predigt und theologische Lehren in bezug auf die Ewigkeit der Menschenseele zumeist fließen. Ich sage jetzt nicht, dem Inhalt der Lehre nach, sondern mehr den Motiven, den Empfindungen, den Gefühlen nach, aus denen heraus gesprochen wird in Predigt und theologischer Lehre. Nicht wahr, der Mensch kann ja, ganz abgesehen von dem, was wahr ist, ein aus dem innersten Seelenegoismus heraus entspringendes Gefühl haben: Die Seele soll nicht zugrunde gehen, wenn der Leib zerfällt! Es ist schon etwas von einem inneren Seelenegoismus, was da wünscht, man möchte nicht zugrunde gehen. Man kann das Ereignis der Auflösung nicht ertragen, man dürstet nach dem Verbleiben der Menschenseele im Dasein nach dem Tode. Dieses Gefühl des Dürstens nach der Unsterblichkeit nach dem Tode, das ist es, an das zunächst Predigt und theologische Lehre appellieren. Das ist es, was die Untergründe abgibt, aus denen heraus über die Ewigkeit der Seele zu den Menschen aus den verschiedensten Konfessionen heraus gesprochen wird. Man findet Gläubige, indem man dem geheimen, dem inneren Seelenegoismus entgegenkommt. Man sagt ja im Grunde genommen den Menschen etwas, wonach sie dürsten, dessen Gegenteil sie durchaus nicht hören wollen. Indem man ihnen von dem Verbleiben im Dasein nach dem Tode spricht, findet man den Zugang zu dem menschlichen Glauben. Man würde sonst den Zugang zu dem Menschenglauben nicht finden, wenn die Menschenseele nicht aus Egoismus heraus dürstete nach der Unzerstörbarkeit der Seele nach dem Tode. Nun wissen wir aus der Geisteswissenschaft, daß diese Menschenseele gewiß nach dem Tode ihr Dasein behält, und wir konnten auch aus vielen Darstellungen, die gegeben worden sind im Laufe der Arbeit innerhalb dieser Bewegung, sehen, daß man aus der Initiationswissenschaft heraus mit Genauigkeit von den Erlebnissen nach dem Tode sprechen kann.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":365,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/199/1920-09-18/p005"}],"english":["GA 199/1920-09-18/p005","GA 199/1920-09-18/p006"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":365,"en_words":363,"ratio":0.99,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 199/1920-09-18/p005"],"reader_part":true},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.07,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6369,"original_word_count":5930,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Maria St. Goar","identified_edition":"AP1986","book_title":"Spiritual Science as a Foundation for Social Forms","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA199/English/AP1986/19200918p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","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 199/1920-09-18/p005"],"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. 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