8. The Harmony Between Spiritual Science and Natural Science and the Misconceptions about the Former and the Building Dedicated to it in Dornach

Just as natural science can very easily lead to materialism when a person becomes accustomed to its material aspects, so spiritual research can lead to all kinds of enthusiasm and to a complete detachment from the external rationality of life if a person does not want to follow the path of truth but instead wants to devote himself to what seems plausible to him according to his subjective needs and desires. Natural science deals with nature – this can easily lead to material things; spiritual science deals with the human being and his soul. As a result, it is particularly easy for a person to take himself very seriously, I would even say out of pleasure, out of pleasure from his soul. And by feeling, “You belong to the spiritual with your soul,” he repeats this to himself again and again, and it is not only the case that the great, all-encompassing truth of repeated earthly lives easily leads such voluptuaries of the soul that they then endeavor above all to brood over whether they themselves could actually have been Alexander or Caesar or Marie-Antoinette or someone else in historical life, or are still searching somewhere else in previous earthly lives. But I will not speak of such aberrations myself. Fanaticism - I would say - inner need, being connected in vanity with the spiritual life, that characterizes very many as not standing on the ground of truth in spiritual science, but standing on the ground of vanity and fanaticism, on that ground on which one is detached from the complete connection with life. True spiritual science does not lead away from this ground of true life, but on the contrary, it leads closer to life. Those who have no inclination to take life with full interest, with full seriousness, but to a certain extent in their soul are inclined to a kind of soul vagabondage, can easily come to even more triviality, to a casual attitude towards life, by being immersed in spiritual science. And very many who cannot bring themselves to fulfill something sensible in life through their hands, through proper diligence, you see them talking about a higher mission that has been given to them from the spiritual world and that they have to fulfill above all things. Speaking in truth, one would often have to say: laziness and carelessness in life appears translated into a strange language as a spiritual mission. Then one can no longer be surprised, dear audience, when those who are accustomed to inner soul discipline, which follows from the scientific world view, look with a certain contempt at those who now, in turn, despise science and often look down on life itself and talk about all kinds of spiritual stuff just because they don't want to understand life scientifically and don't want to apply themselves to ordinary life with the appropriate diligence, seriousness and attention.