{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 199/1920-09-18/p008","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Western civilization, however, is infected by the various creeds. Things have gone so far that we do not even have the means in our language to express what is the truth in this area. If we still adhere to a religious world concept, or to some kind of rational philosophical world view, we speak of the immortality of the human soul. In that we have this word \"immortality\" of the human soul, we point to the fact that with this word we actually negate only dying, not birth; for what word could we use with which we could indicate preexistence in the same way that the word \"“immortality” points to postexistence? Why should we not use a word like “unbornness” which, in the face of true spiritual knowledge, has as much justification as does the word “immortality?” This can be your best evidence of what has been lost in the West directly through the activities of the various religious denominations: the truth about the being of man. This truth has been lost even in regard to language. And even insofar as language is concerned, we must bring about the awareness that the human soul is eternal, that it exists before birth as much as it exists after death. We need a word for the condition of \"unbornness\" just as much as for “immortality.” Now, however, when you think of an existence before birth, and turn to really sound logic, logic that makes you capable of thinking something through to its conclusion, ask yourself if you are then still capable of not speaking of repeated earth lives. Of course, if you speak only of immortality, of postexistence, you can believe: Here is one earth life, then follows an eternity of a totally different kind! Logically, you will no longer be able to do that when you speak of preexistence. For, otherwise, you would have to ask yourself: Well, how is it that I now find that the soul is not created at birth? Why should it be created somewhere along the way before birth? In short, you absolutely arrive at repeated earth lives when you speak of preexistence. It is a fundamental fact that never in earthly civilization has one come to the view of preexistence without also speaking of repeated earth lives.","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":382,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/199/1920-09-18/p008","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/p008"},{"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/p008","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/p007","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/199/1920-09-18/p007"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":335,"en_words":382,"ratio":1.14,"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/p007","passage_number":7,"text":"Aber die abendländische Zivilisation ist infiziert durch die Bekenntnisse; sie ist so weit gekommen, daß wir eigentlich nicht einmal in der Sprache ein Hilfsmittel haben, um das auszudrücken, was auf diesem Gebiete die Wahrheit ist. Wir sprechen, wenn wir noch innerhalb einer religiösen Weltanschauung stehen oder innerhalb irgendeiner vernünftigen philosophischen Weltanschauung, von der Unsterblichkeit der Menschenseele. Indem wir das Wort «Unsterblichkeit» der Menschenseele haben, deuten wir schon darauf hin, daß wir im Grunde genommen damit nur das Sterben negieren, nicht die Geburt, denn wo hätten wir ein gebräuchliches Wort, welches ebenso hinweisen würde auf die Präexistenz, wie das Wort Unsterblichkeit auf die Postexistenz hinweist. Wo hätten wir ein Wort wie «Ungeborenheit», das genau die gleiche Berechtigung hat vor wirklich geistiger Erkenntnis wie «Unsterblichkeit»? Das kann Ihnen der beste Beweis dafür sein, was verlorengegangen ist im Abendlande, gerade durch das Wirken der Konfessionen: die Wahrheit über das Wesen des Menschen, Bis in die Sprache hinein ist diese Wahrheit verlorengegangen. Denn wir müssen bis in die Sprache hinein das Bewußtsein dafür hervorrufen, daß die Menschenseele ewig ist, daß sie ebenso vor der Geburt da ist wie nach dem Tode. Wir brauchen ebenso ein Wort für Ungeborenheit, wie wir ein Wort haben für Unsterblichkeit. Dann aber fragen Sie eine gesunde Logik, wenn Sie an ein vorgeburtliches Dasein denken, eine Logik, die wirklich zu Ende denkt, ob Sie dann noch imstande sind, nicht von wiederholten Erdenleben zu sprechen. Sie können, wenn Sie nur von Unsterblichkeit reden, von einer Postexistenz, allerdings glauben: Dieses eine Erdenleben, und dann eine Ewigkeit ganz anderer Art! Sie werden das logischerweise nicht mehr können, wenn Sie von Präexistenz sprechen. Sonst müßten Sie sich fragen: Ja, wie kommt es, daß nun nicht doch mit der Geburt die Seele geschaffen wird? Warum sollte sie geschaffen werden irgendeine Strecke vor der Geburt? Kurz, Sie kommen unbedingt zu den wiederholten Erdenleben, wenn Sie von Präexistenz sprechen. Im Grunde genommen ist man noch niemals in der Erdenzivilisation zu der Anschauung der Präexistenz gekommen, ohne von den wiederholten Erdenleben zu sprechen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":335,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/199/1920-09-18/p007"}],"english":["GA 199/1920-09-18/p008"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":335,"en_words":382,"ratio":1.14,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"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/p007"],"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."}}