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because one finds it to be "cold" and "uninteresting"? With respect to those personalities who claim to
stand on the "firm ground of scientific facts," the spiritual researcher is in the following position.
He says to them, Nothing of what you produce in the way of such facts from geology, paleontology,
biology, physiology, and so forth is denied by me. It is true that many of your assertions are in need of
correction through other facts. But such a correction will be brought about by natural science itself.
Apart from that, I say "yes" to what you advance. It does not enter my mind to fight you when you
advance facts. But your facts are only a part of reality. The other part are the spiritual facts, through
which the occurrence of the sensory ones first becomes understandable. These facts are not
hypotheses, not something which "one" cannot imagine, but something lived and experienced by
spiritual research. What you advance beyond the facts you have observed is, without your realizing it,
nothing other than the opinion that those spiritual facts cannot exist.
As a matter of fact, you advance nothing as the proof of your assertion except that such spiritual facts
are unknown to you. From this you deduce that they do not exist and that those who claim to know
something of them are dreamers and visionaries. The spiritual researcher does not take even the
smallest part of your world from you; he only adds his own to it. But you are not satisfied that he
should act in this way; you say although not always clearly " One´ must not speak of anything
except of that of which we speak; we demand not only that that be granted to us of which we know
something, but we require that all that of which we know nothing be declared idle phantasms."
The person who wants to have anything to do with such "logic" cannot be helped for the time being.
With this logic he may understand the sentence: "Our I has formerly lived directly in our human
ancestors, and it will continue to live in our direct or indirect descendants." (Forel, Leben und Tod
(Life and Death), page 21.) Only he should not add, "Science proves it," as is done in this work. For in
this case science "proves" nothing, but a belief which is chained to the world of the senses sets up the
dogma: That of which I can imagine nothing must be considered as delusion; and he who sins against
my assertion offends against true science.
The one who knows the development of the human soul finds it quite understandable that men's minds
are dazzled for the moment by the enormous progress of natural science and that today they cannot
find their way among the forms in which great truths are traditionally transmitted. The science of the
spirit gives such forms back to mankind. It shows for example how the Days of Creation of the Bible
represent things which are unveiled to the clairvoyant eye. (*)
A mind chained to the world of the senses finds only that the Days of Creation contradict the results
of geology and so forth. In understanding the deep truths of these Days of Creation, the science of the
spirit is equally far removed from making them evaporate as a mere "poetry of myths," and from
employing any kind of allegorical or symbolical methods of explanation. How it proceeds is indeed
quite unknown to those who still ramble on about the contradiction between these Days of Creation
and science.
Further, it must not be thought that spiritual research finds its knowledge in the Bible. It has its own
methods, finds truths independently of all documents and then recognizes them in the latter. This way
is necessary for many present-day seekers after truth. For they demand a spiritual research which
bears within itself the same character as natural science. And only where the nature of this science of
the spirit is not recognized does one become perplexed when it is a matter of protecting the facts of
the supersensible world from opinions which appear to be founded on natural science. Such a state of
mind was even anticipated by a man of warm soul, who however could not find the supersensible
content of the science of the spirit.
Almost eighty years ago this personality, Schleiermacher, wrote to the much younger Lücke: "When
you consider the present state of natural science, how more and more it assumes the form of an
encompassing account of the universe, what do you then feel the future will bring, I shall not even say
for our theology, but for our evangelical Christianity? ... I feel that we shall have to learn to do
without much of what many are still accustomed to consider as being inseparably connected with the
nature of Christianity. I shall not even speak of the Six Days' Work, but the concept of creation, as it
is usually interpreted ... How long will it be able to stand against the power of a world-outlook formed
on the basis of scientific reasonings which nobody can ignore? ... What is to happen, my dear friend? I
shall not see this time, and can quietly lie down to sleep; but you, my friend, and your contemporaries,
what do you intend to do?" (Theologische Studien und Kritiken von Ullmann und Umbreit
(Theological Studies and Criticism by Ullmann and Umbreit), 1829, page 489).
At the basis of this statement lies the opinion that the "scientific reasonings" are a necessary result of
the facts. If this were so, then "nobody" could ignore them, and he whose feeling draws near the
supersensible world can wish that he may be allowed "quietly to lie down to sleep" in the face of the
assault of science against the supersensible world. The prediction of Schleiermacher has been
realized, insofar as the "scientific reasonings" have established themselves in wide circles. But at the
same time, today there exists a possibility of coming to know the supersensible world in just as
"scientific" a manner as the interrelationships of sensory facts.
The one who familiarizes himself with the science of the spirit in the way this is possible at present,
will be preserved from many superstitions by it, and will become able to take the supersensible facts
into his conceptual store, thereby divesting himself of the superstition that fear and need have created
this supersensible world.
The one who is able to struggle through to this view will no longer be held back by the idea that he
might be estranged from reality and practical life by occupying himself with the science of the spirit.
He will then realize how the true science of the spirit does not make life poorer, but richer.
It will certainly not mislead him into underestimating telephones, railroad technology, and aerial
navigation; but in addition he will see many other practical things which remain neglected today,
when one believes only in the world of the senses and therefore recognizes only a part of the truth
rather than all of it.
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[*] Compare: Rudolf Steiner, Die Geheimnisse der biblischen Schopfungsgeschichte (The Secrets of
the Biblical History of Creation), Freiburg i, Br., 1954.
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