How do you explain the beauty of the natural world?

Sounds like God in action to me! Consider the dusty landscape of the moon and Mars. Even if you consider evolution and the good climate here on earth, that can't account for the beauty --- things can grow and multiply but why beauty? Think about the beauty of the sunsets, rainbows, butterflies, animals, flowers, lakes, forests, ocean, national parks like Grand Canyon, Mt. Rainer, Yellowstone, etc. Beauty requires an observer or it would be like painting a landscape in a dark room. You could throw paint on the canvas, but real beauty takes an artist who can see the work. What do you say?|||In science it is okay to say, "I don't know".





When you don't know something it is a poor idea to say, "This is proof of magic".


.|||Gee, what a "miracle" -- somewhat intelligent organisms that evolved on a particular planet have a totally subjective instinct to consider things on that planet that are beneficial to their survival "beautiful."





Not.





So it never occurred to you that beauty is subjective, huh? Or that there are just as many non-"beautiful" things in the world (decaying dead bodies, the aftermath of a flood or volcanic eruption, tar pits, etc.) as "beautiful" things that you've ignored? Or that we happen to like flowers and sunsets and such things because they are meaningful to our survival, or to fair weather, etc.?





"Sounds like god in action to me!" Sounds like a rather ignorant argument from incredulity to me.





Peace.|||Guess I'm not on the same page. First, I don't feel the need to explain, I just accept the natural world. Having spent a lot of time in it, I would argue that just observing it one can appreciate the beauty of it, however getting out into it, you no longer really see the beauty, you become a part of a miniscule piece of it. And it isn't all that beautiful close up. I also don't agree beauty requires an observer. It will be what it is whether or not anyone observes or appreciates it. Cause and effect my friend, sunsets, rainbows, all of it. I agree with the gist of your statement. It's all Glorious with or without my appreciation.


Peace.|||Just because something is considered beautiful that doesn't mean goddunit. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder--it's an entirely subjective experience. While some consider deserts ugly and bleak others consider them lovely. Some people find great beauty in an outcropping of rocks. So do we leave it up to the individual to decide, based on his individual perception of beauty, what is or is not made by god? Are lush valleys of god but arid wastelands not? Obviously it's a fallacy to claim beauty is evidence of god(s).











"You could throw paint on the canvas, but real beauty takes an artist who can see the work."








There are plenty of blind artists who create beautiful works of art. http://nebaart.org/2007/artists.htm|||"What do you say?"





Beauty is subjective. The Grand Canyon is a massive hole in the ground, nothing more. Sunsets are beautiful - but they're the result of air pollution, which is primarily man-made. I find roses ugly flowers, while a good number of people find them beautiful; on the contrary, I love orchids, which some people can't stand.





Why do you feel that something must be attributed to your god in order for it to be beautiful - especially when 'beautiful' is purely subjective?|||So creationist theory is limited to things which we're taught to think look nice. So the stuff lurking at the bottom of the sea evolved? I think bug-eyed toy dogs looking hideous, can I add them to the list of things your god didn't make?





Also, surely if a god made Earth he/she/it is also responsible for the entire universe? So the dullness of the moon or mars is his fault too? If his work is limited to Earth then how do you account for the beauty of the universe?|||"Sounds like God in action to me! "





Yeah, that's the problem.





You obviously think you are so wonderful and amazing that the universe must have been made by an intelligent being like you, strictly for the benefit of humans.





Now think of the scale:





Imagine the entire human race is bacteria clinging to a grain of sand...





Now drop that grain of sand in the ocean... now see if you can find it again.





There are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, many of them with planets orbiting them, but our galaxy is just one... of hundreds of billions of galaxies.|||Beauty is subjective.





"You could throw paint on the canvas, but real beauty takes an artist who can see the work. What do you say?"





It's like abstract art. It's paint thrown randomly on the canvas but we're snooty art critics who refuse to accept that. We must find beauty and meaning in the chaos.|||Can't explain it. Its something that you have to experience for yourself. I believe in evolution, but I also believe that God's hand is in the proccess, and anything that God's hand touches is beauty.|||I call it by its actual name-reality.Beauty is a piss poor reason for believing in some god.I'm sorry you lack the knowledge necessary to enter reality.I realize it's a faint hope,but you can learn if you give up magical thinking and try using rational and critical thinking skills.|||you don麓t ne茅d always explain things.


just seat there and watch the beautiful creation.


God is like a Artist and his Masterpiece are his children (Humankind) and the whole creation.


Rom.:1:20





regards


JohnH|||Beauty is subjective. We evolved to think things typically associated with healthy partners are beautiful in other humans for example.|||Beauty lies in the interpretation behind the scene, not in the scene itself.


Scenes remind us of a world we know from somewhere else that we associate with love.|||What you find to be beautiful is only so because your brain has developed to recognize and respond thusly to those stimuli.|||A feature of evolution, those that find the world beautiful are those that will be best placed to survive and propagate their genes|||All the volcanoes, earthquakes, diseases, famine, poverty, etc. -- So beautiful!|||Glorious God's Grace, Power, Knowledge, Skill, Taste etc......|||OR, GOD likes beauty also.|||beauty is in the eye and mind of the beholder--which means beauty is man made--has nothing to do with any sky monekys.|||Texas sharpshooter fallacy











I love you xtian questioners, you really help me to understand different fallacies|||Its ALLAH creation.|||i don't even try. but i also don't lie and think goddidit.|||What god do you mean exactly?|||You twit.|||[puke]


I ate fruity pebbles this morning, so I made rainbow puke. I am quite an artist.|||And you arrived at God did it how?|||just put a bikini on it then i'll decide|||I don't need an imaginary friend to explain a concept as vague and subjective as "beauty". A lot it just comes down to symmetry, ratio, and contrast.








%26gt;%26gt;Beauty requires an observer





In other words, you define beauty AS a perceived thing. That doesn't mean it was intentionally created. How come your God didn't create our eyes to see infrared or ultra violet? As a Rorschach inkblot test shows, people will "see" what they want to see.





You also can't get beauty unless you have something to contrast it against. "Beauty" only exists in the natural world if you can compare it to enough stuff that's mundane and boring. So your argument collapses down to "I know that God made the universe beautiful because so much of the universe he created is far from beautiful", a complete contradiction.





Oddly enough, we DO have an evolutionary explanation of the pattern-recognition mentality that creates the impression of "beauty" in the first place:


http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v37鈥?/a>








%26gt;%26gt;You could throw paint on the canvas, but real


%26gt;%26gt;beauty takes an artist who can see the work.





Then why do Pollack's paintings hang in a museum?|||I think the "Rainbow" stands out since our common ancestor Noah saw it for the first time.





And God then created a beautiful arching bow of light, where orange, scarlet, green and blue simultaneously curved as they carved through the firmament. As Noah watched in wonder, behind him a wooden ark of the past and before him a luminous arc of the future, God gave Noah His promise...





Whenever mankind's skies would darken with untoward deeds; whenever the tapestry of humankind's collective performance would grow heavy from sinful pursuits; when their atmosphere would roll and their world would crash with the thunder of violence and the turbulence of injustice; when dreadful flashes of denial, dishonesty, cruelty and depravity would rend society asunder; when the victims' blood and the tears of the oppressed would fall in hopeless torrents and disappear beneath the sullen sodden soil of man's conscience -- there would yet appear a redeeming rainbow.





Never again will He preserve the rose in a crafted pot whilst He torches the rest of His garden The embattled light of truth, justice and divinity will never again be thoroughly blocked from filtering through the collective clouds of mankind's perversity. There will always be a righteous minority within mankind who, despite the vapors, will be ready and willing to accept the burden and beauty of arching bravely and steadily heavenwards, to touch some of heaven's radiance from beyond, then curve gracefully back towards the earth -- thus banishing the gloom from within their arc and filling the threatening atmosphere with the glorious spectrum of colors that are manmade reflections of God's truth and hope for mankind.





There will always be, God promised, at least a minority that remains faithful to the seven laws that G-d gave all mankind; seven colors through which humankind can survive, thrive and spiritually illuminate their planet. God's promise guarantees their perpetual existence and their ability to shine, to ultimately broaden their bands of influence and become the righteous majority...|||Blind evolutionists cant see the beauty and intelligence of it all. Satan has deceived the world as written in God's Word.