How Unique You Are! - Art and Beauty

"Why do people pursue art so passionately?" asked Professor Michael Leyton in Symmetry Casualty, Mind. As he pointed out, some might say that mental activity such as mathematics confers clear benefits to humans, but why art? Leyton illustrated his point by saying that people travel great distances to art exhibits and concerts.  What inner sense is involved?  Similarly, people around the globe put attractive pictures or painting on the walls of their home or office. Or consider music.  Most people like to listen to some style of music at home  or in their cars.  Why?  It certainly is not because music once contributed to the survival of the fittest. Says Leyton:  "Art is perhaps the most inexplicable phenomenon of the human species.

Still, we all know that enjoying art and beauty is part of what makes us feel "human."  An animal might sit on a hill and look at a colorful sky, but is it drawn to beauty as such?  We look at a mountain torrent shimmering in the sunshine, stare at the dazzling diversity in a tropical rain forest, gaze at a palm-lined beach, or admire the stars sprinkled across the black velvet sky.  Often we feel awed, do we not?  Beauty of that sort makes our hearts glow, our spirits soar. Why?

Why do we  have an innate craving for things that, in reality, contribute little materially to our survival?  From where do our aesthetic values come? If we do not take into account a Maker who shaped these values at man's creation, these questions lack satisfying answers.  This is also true regarding beauty in morals. 

Next time: How Unique You Are! -Moral Values

From the book Is There a Creator That Cares About You?