Nature and the human mind

There is something about the human condition which separates man from the animals. I heard a sermon in Church yesterday about beauty. The speaker said that beauty is something God placed in nature which only we as humans recognize. I personally see it when I go backpacking and climbing in Colorado. I don't know anyone who doesn't enjoy the beauty in nature.

And, the interesting thing about it is, natural selection is not at the top of the food chain here, so to speak. Just because nature is beautiful we aren't more or less likely to survive. We aren't just another animal set in motion by the forces of nature. The beauty we see and enjoy, stands on it's own. We see beauty in nature because God created it for us to enjoy. I can grasp and understand things no animal can and this is why. I like what Pascal said 500 years ago, "By space the universe embraces me and swallows me up like an atom, by thought I embrace the universe."


The speaker talked about John Muir (who was a devout Christian by the way) and how he saw the beauty in nature. God did after all, plant something in all of us which sees things, appreciates the beauty, and somewhere inside we know He (God) was responsible.