Creation Answer:
Beauty and art are not just the result of evolution for mating purposes.[i] “Essentially, the foundational argument would suggest that, given the universal reality that the concept of “beauty” exists (even if it is in “the eye of the beholder”) there is an ultimate “standard” by which beauty is judged. Determining the aesthetic value of anything requires rational judgment, even though that judgment is unique to each individual. Each rational judgment must rely on one’s ability to discriminate at a sensory or emotional level.”[ii]
“This examination makes a judgment regarding whether something is beautiful, sublime, disgusting, fun, cute, silly, entertaining, pretentious, discordant, harmonious, boring, humorous, or tragic. And, of course, since such an ability exists only in the mental acuity of imaginative appreciation, then the Source of such ability must also be both rational and emotional.”[iii]
God created man beautiful in His own image. The beauty in nature (including humans) is to reflect the glory and majesty of God and what He created, and also to show the unique design and creativity of our Designer. Like every other created thing, beauty and art were created as reminders for us to glorify God. All glory is owed to Him. Beauty and a creative, artistic ability are characteristics of humanity. Humans were created intricately and very uniquely to reflect God’s ability and talents, that through what He created, people could acknowledge that He is God.
God has given an almost limitless supply of resources and creativity for humans to develop further forms of art. God is Himself a magnificent artist. He designed the stars in the sky. He designed an amazing variety of animal and plant life. He paints beautiful sunsets that cause our jaws to drop in awe. God’s intricate artistic design is evidenced even down to the smallest functions of our cells. Our God is an awesome God. The sense of awe that a human feels inspires belief and is itself an evidence of God.[iv] “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Eccl 3:11, NIV). “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands,” (Ps 19:1), “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Rom 1:19-20 NASB)
Math is deeply rooted within art. Without math, people and scientists would not be able to know and figure out the artistic nature and beauty of our bodies.[v] This connection between math and art did not just develop naturally, but it was designed by God. God set the standard when He first created everything with its perfect dimension and size, and from that, man was able to understand these created entities: math, art and beauty.[vi]
God designed mankind to see the opposite gender as beautiful. He created man not to be alone, and designed us to interact, to enjoy each other, and to be intimate in the right context (marriage). He did this because He loves us and wants us to be blessed by the intimate love of one’s spouse. Therefore, the beauty of one’s spouse is a special thing that God gave us and the marriage relationship is analogous to God’s beauty as well as Christ’s relationship to us.
Evolutionists make assumptions as to why waterfalls or sunsets are beautiful. They simply show that we are higher evolved and so more intelligent, but they can’t completely explain intelligence and consciousness from their worldview. They can’t explain what makes us different from “other animals.” In fact, humanity’s hunger for beauty “is a wonder in itself! The flower is not impressed with its own majesty; it merely exists with no conscious awareness. The chimpanzee does not gaze longingly on the enigma of the Mona Lisa, nor do the stars muse on the heavens they themselves grace.”[vii]
Regarding the sophisticated nest of the bowerbird, “rather than an intellectual intention towards art, the great bowerbird instinctively builds remarkable structures, and the female instinctively responds to the optical effect, as programmed by the Creator. Only man, created in the image of God, has a true aesthetic sense. When appreciating the beauty and design of creatures like the bowerbird, the wise aesthetic judge praises the Creator of both art and beauty.”[viii]
Photo Credit: Melissa Rohrer
“According to evolution, a complex pattern like the eye pattern in the peacock’s feather has evolved by the accumulation of hundreds of genetic mistakes occurring over vast periods of time. However, patterns like the blue ellipsoid in the eye are irreducible, i.e. they require several features to be simultaneously present in order for there to be a clear pattern. If only one barb in a peacock tail feather was to have a patch of blue color this would not produce a beautiful pattern. Such a random change would arguably cause the peahen to deselect, not select the pattern. Since evolution requires every step change to have a selective advantage, the eye pattern cannot evolve but must be designed complete from the beginning.”[ix] “Most evolutionists accept that creatures like the peacock have added beauty” or more beauty than is needed to survive. “Added beauty” has no evolutionary explanation except that it just happened for no reason, but rather it is “a hallmark of an intelligent designer, beauty in nature must be seen as an important evidence of design.”[x]
Naturalists have created the theory of sexual selection because, within nature, there are organisms like peacocks and birds of paradise that use aesthetic selection techniques to get a mate. There are many difficulties with the theory and so some scientists have developed “alternative theories for the origin of beauty. The existence of these alternative theories suggests that the theory of sexual selection is not sound…There is no satisfactory explanation of how the sexual selection cycle can start or why the peahen should prefer beautiful features.”[xi] The aesthetic features of these organisms are all beautiful to humans as well. “According to evolution, preference genes” (genes that cause the female to be attracted to a particular feature) “appear by totally random processes and therefore there could be a fashion for all kinds of features including ugly features.”[xii] Why aren’t there more preferred features that we would call ugly?
Notice, there are things that all humanity calls ugly or beautiful and this means that “there must exist a standard of perfect beauty.”[xiii] Naturalistic “researchers have not yet found a metaprogram in this universe that guides clouds of space dust into raw functional, let alone variously aesthetic, forms. After all, what does the impersonal universe care about beauty? A Creator God who appreciates beauty and wants others to appreciate His handiwork must be responsible for the origin of aesthetic features.”[xiv]
There is no good naturalistic reason why humans should trust our logic and emotions if they are simply evolved chemical reactions. Inspiration, passion, and desire have been created and given by God to us. God designed beauty, art, math, logic, consciousness, emotions, etc. and He designed us to appreciate them. Everything God has made is a beautiful, artistic design in accordance to His will. Even in a cursed and fallen world, God has created beauty that looks ahead to things to come. Therefore, we should explore deeper into what God has created and glorify Him through every aspect of our lives.
What the Bible Says: Gen 1:31; Job 12:7-9; Ps 8:3, 19:1, 50:6, 36:5, 65:6-7, 90:2, 104: 30-31; Gen 1:26-27; Gen 1:28; Gen 9:7; 2 Cor 4:6; Ps 145:5; Ps 145:12; Ps 8:1; Eccl 3:11; Is 6:3; Ex 31:3; Ex 31:5; Ex 35:31; Rom 1:18-20
Written By Brian Mariani and others
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[i] Kathryn Bell, God, the Bible, and Art: Part 1, BJU Press, http://www.bjupress.com/resources/articles/t2t/god-bible-and-art-part-1.php, accessed August 23, 2014.
[ii] God Caused Beauty, Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/aesthetics/, accessed August 22, 2014.
[iii] God Caused Beauty, Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/aesthetics/, accessed August 22, 2014.
[iv] Fazale Rana, What Inspires Your Belief in God?, February 13, 2014, Reasons to Believe, http://www.reasons.org/articles/what-inspires-your-belief-in-god, accessed August 23, 2014.
[v] Ruth Bancewicz, Beauty, Science & Theology, Part 3: Beauty & the Character of God, Science and Belief, http://scienceandbelief.org/2012/08/09/beauty-science-theology-part-3-beauty-the-character-of-god/, accessed August 23, 2014.
[vi] The Theory of Evolution vs. Creation Science, Creation & Evolution, http://www.pilgrimtours.com/creation/mathematics.htm, accessed August 23, 2014.
[vii] God Caused Beauty, Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/aesthetics/, accessed August 22, 2014.
[viii] Bowerbird’s Artistic Sense, September 18, 2010, Answers in Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/birds/bowerbirds-artistic-sense/, accessed August 22, 2014.
[ix] Stuart Burgess, The Beauty of the Peacock Tail and the Problems with the Theory of Sexual Selection, August 1, 2001, Answers in Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/peacock-tail-beauty-and-problems-theory-of-sexual-selection/, accessed August 22, 2014.
[x] Stuart Burgess, The Beauty of the Peacock Tail and the Problems with the Theory of Sexual Selection, August 1, 2001, Answers in Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/peacock-tail-beauty-and-problems-theory-of-sexual-selection/, accessed August 22, 2014.
[xi] Stuart Burgess, The Beauty of the Peacock Tail and the Problems with the Theory of Sexual Selection, August 1, 2001, Answers in Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/peacock-tail-beauty-and-problems-theory-of-sexual-selection/, accessed August 22, 2014.
[xii] Stuart Burgess, The Beauty of the Peacock Tail and the Problems with the Theory of Sexual Selection, August 1, 2001, Answers in Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/peacock-tail-beauty-and-problems-theory-of-sexual-selection/, accessed August 22, 2014.
[xiii] God Caused Beauty, Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/aesthetics/, accessed August 22, 2014.
[xiv] Brian Thomas, The Apobetics of Aesthetics: A Hairy Problem for Evolution, 2009, Acts & Facts 38(4):18, Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/article/apobetics-aesthetics-hairy-problem-for-evolution/, accessed August 22, 2014.
