Why So Much Beauty?
Question of the week: Why is our planet so beautiful? Why is it so beautiful now?
My answer: I like to ask friends and associates who are not yet followers of Jesus Christ these questions. I like to take them to places of exceptional natural beauty and ask them to explain the beauty they are seeing. I like to ask them why they are enjoying the beauty so much. Why is it, if there is no God, that flowers are so gorgeous, trees so majestic, plants so extremely abundant and varied in their food production, beetles so varied and colorful (see If There Is a God, Why So Many Beetles?),1 and animals so playful? I like to ask my fellow astronomers why we call large spiral galaxies “grand design” galaxies and why the public so much enjoys looking through telescopes at planets and deep-sky objects. I like to ask theoretical physicists why the mathematics that describes the physics of our universe is so elegant and beautiful and why is it that the correct answers to physics problems are always the solutions expressed by the most beautiful and elegant equations.
The truth is that everywhere we look, we see an extravagance of beauty in nature. From a naturalistic perspective there is no explanation for such an exuberant display of beauty. Rather, it all testifies to a Creator for whom love, beauty, and elegance are key components of his being.
The extravagance of natural beauty we see now especially testifies of God’s love for humanity. As I explain in Improbable Planet, never before in the history of Earth has there been such spectacular natural beauty. Never before has there been such a diversity of life. Never before has Earth’s life been so eager to serve, please, and relate to human beings. That we humans happen to be here at the most beautiful moment in Earth’s history and simultaneously are endowed with a capacity to recognize and appreciate beauty is yet more evidence for a God who makes everything beautiful in its own time.
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Endnotes
- Hugh Ross, “If There Is a God, Why So Many Beetles?” Questions from Social Media (April 3, 2020), https://reasons.org/explore/publications/tnrtb/read/questions-from-social-media/2020/04/03/if-there-is-a-god-why-so-many-beetles.