Pre-existence

thumb|268x268px|God resting after creation – Christ depicted as the creator of the world prior to his incarnation as Jesus, [[Byzantine mosaic in Monreale, Sicily.]]

Pre-existence, premortal existence, beforelife, or life before birth, is the belief that each individual human soul existed before mortal conception, and at some point before birth enters or is placed into the body. Concepts of pre-existence can encompass either the belief that the soul came into existence at some time prior to conception or the belief that the soul is eternal. Alternative positions are traducianism and creationism, which both hold that the individual human soul does not come into existence until conception or later. It is to be distinguished from preformation, which is about physical existence and applies to all living things.