The beauty of a sunset. The splendor of a mountain vista. The feeling you get when you look at a rose or a tropical beach. From where does our sense of beauty arise?
Is the appearance of beauty nothing more than the result of random processes? Is the color of the sunset just light scattering through atmospheric particles? Is the sense of wonder we feel the result of chemicals in our brains?
If your thoughts and feelings are merely the result of neurochemicals then if you were to add those chemicals to neurons in a petri dish, would the neurons feel the same way you do when you gaze across a meadow blooming with wildflowers?
The sun is the source of energy for life on Earth. Part of what we feel when we see beauty in a sunset is gratitude for the life the sun gives us. But where does the sense of beauty originate?
A machine does not feel beauty the way you do. The Mars Rover is a machine with solar panels exploring the surface of Mars, which also depends on the sun for its “life.” However, it does feel any appreciation for the sun or any mental sensation at all because it’s a machine, an input-output device.
We know flowers take the form they do to attract pollinators; their apparent beauty is to us is an ancillary effect. However, bees and humans are both attracted to flowers because all living things are connected to the one infinite mind. We see God in a flower and God is beauty.
Beauty is a concept and concepts exist in the realm of ideas. The fact that we all see beauty means that we are connected to the idealist realm. Two people sit on a beach watching the sun set. “Isn’t it beautiful?” One says.
“Yes,” says the other, “I see the beauty in the sunset.”
What are they agreeing on? They agree that they each have a mind that perceives reality by relating the material world to concepts in the realm of ideas to which they are both connected. “Yes, this sunset aligns with my mental concept of beauty, which appears to be the same as your mental concept of beauty.”
So next time you admire the beauty of a sunset, think about how it connects you to all living things and the Source of beauty.