Aesthetics & Continuity

Brian Kuehmichel
July 28, 2003, Updated Nov. 2012


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"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." Albert Einstein


Evidence for God — Aesthetic

Quote from C. S. Lewis about the whole point of seeing . . "But you cannot go on explaining away for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on seeing through things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to see through first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To see through all things is the same as not to see."
The Abolition of Man

A. From Aesthetic beauty

[View an example in mathematics.]

1. A stunning array of mathematical, artistic and functional beauty pervades all of nature.

a. Both simple and complex numerical sequences are built into plant and animal designs.

b. Even things that only appear under great magnification have beauty in their intricate details.

c. The starry hosts also display an unexpected grandeur as shown by the Hubble and other space telescopes.

2. This beauty is not seen by the object itself but only by the intended observers.

a. This points back to teleological purposiveness.

b. Only a Creator could plan for beauty from the most microscopic to the telescopic.

B. From Functional symmetry

1. A stunning array of symmetrical balance pervades nature.

a. Chemicals have left and right isomers which are mirror images of one another.

b. Living things only use the left-handed or levo-isomers of amino acids.

c. Random does not explain the one-sided imbalance in the selection of chemical isomers used by life-forms.

d. Random, unguided processes cannot explain the right and left symmetry of so many types of animals allowing for intentional and directional motion.

2. The balance of an organism for stationary and mobile circumstances is unexplained by random.

a. Random would produce distortions and grotesque aberrations.

b. Structural stresses compounded and magnified by the lack of symmetry lead to the dysfunction or destruction of the organism.

c. Organisms do not survive without functional symmetry.

C. From Delight from the Senses

1. Human senses are responsive to pleasure and its lack or opposite.

a. Human eyes recognize beauty in celestial and terrestrial nature.

b. Human eyes recognize beauty in mineral, plant, animal and human forms and features.

c. Human ears recognize beauty in sounds and melody.

d. Human noses recognize beauty in aromas and scents.

e. Human skins recognize beauty in caress, touch and texture.

e. Human tongues recognize beauty in taste and texture.

2. Humans recognize beauty innately.

a. Newborn babies strongly prefer attractive faces and gaze at them longer than unattractive faces.

b. Babies and very young children respond to music, melody and song without training.

D. From Contentment in moral wholeness

1. Humans appreciate beauty in harmonious family and social living and resist their opposites.

a. Humans recognize discord, lies, suffering and ugliness in life.

b. Humans recognize harmony, truths, happiness (health, joy, fairness) and wholesome life.

2. Humans labor to restore harmonious living in family and community.

Evidence for God — Continuity

A. From succession of life by Self-preservation

1. The integration of complex dissimilar organisms with self-preservation mechanisms into nature's biosphere.

a. Each organism asserts some demands on the biosphere.

b. These mechanisms give balance to the demands of other organisms.

c. This shows intentional or designed balance to prevent the overwhelming of one life form above all others.

2. The survivability of plant and animal organisms by ingenious defense or protective mechanisms shows creative design.

B. From succession of life by Reproduction

1. The reproducibility of plant and animal organisms by complex asexual & sexual mechanisms (Mitosis - nuclear division plus cytokinesis, asexual processes such as binary fission, and some processes of meiosis).

Examples: pheromones excreted by animal organisms attracting species specific mates, complex mating rituals, and much more.

2. The innate complex processes by which animal organisms recognize their counterparts as compatible for reproduction and by which animals attract suitable mates shows amazing design.

3. The innate mechanisms by which animals survive displays ingenious creativity.

Examples: intra & extra-corporeal egg development, male hosted fertilized eggs, independent and dependent survivability, survival training by parent(s), food provision by one mate during offspring development cycle, migration, and much more.



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