About, Mainly, Scenery
If this is an apologetic, then it is a rather plain one. I consider it, rather, a simple observation.
I suppose you've heard of the saying, "It's the simplest things in life that we enjoy". Of course, we don't just enjoy simple things. I do have a lot of sophisticated tastes. But I guess it is, in the end, the simple things that matter the most. From experience, I can say so. And from retrospective reflection, I can testify as well.
I suppose one thing simple thing I just love is beautiful scenery. I just can't get enough of it. But what I enjoy the most about scenery is not its aesthetic value. But, rather, the thoughts it spawns. The thought of being there, actually looking around you (Well, now you know I tend to look at pictures of scenery rather than being there).
Of course, the experience of being in a beautiful place and doing the exact same thing is no less the same. I would like to add that such an experience (in addition to having a strong emotional value) is quite spiritual in nature. To elaborate a little, I (and, I'm sure, others as well) look at a beautiful countryside, I do not think about how it was formed- how it was thousands, millions of years ago and how natural forces shaped it to what it is today.
Instead, I think about it as it is. How beautiful it is. Then my thoughts wander to God, and how beautiful his creation is. Yes, a rather common phrase, a common happening. Yet even if such an experience is merely psychological, it would perhaps be a case of shirking the obvious question. Why think of God when we think "beautiful scenery"? I suppose for some, their presuppositions would certainly compel them to leave off the question as irrelevant. Again, maybe so. Yet, it is still something so strong- this sense of teleology, of design, that we see in nature. Something about beauty that brings us back to God. And not, instead, to natural mechanisms.
Why are we reminded of "someone's" marvelous creation? The question to ask is not who that someone is (although it is important). But rather, why do we think of this "someone". Why do so many people associate such grandeur, such beauty to this thing?
I suppose such questions ought to be answered. And for many, they have been. Yet, it is not the answer that many would like to have. Indeed, even though people do marvel about creation, they end up positing something that doesn't seem to marvel. Something that we hardly (if ever) think of when we reflect on things like scenery.
Evil seems to be the biggest suppressor of people fully acknowledging God. Beauty seems to be its greatest releaser. It is easy to think the former has nothing to do with God and the latter everything. Yet it does. It is something allowed by God. And I daresay that either way, we are either going away from or coming to someone or something. Who that someone, that something is, I would say obvious to every single one of us- whether we acknowledge its existence or not.
I suppose you've heard of the saying, "It's the simplest things in life that we enjoy". Of course, we don't just enjoy simple things. I do have a lot of sophisticated tastes. But I guess it is, in the end, the simple things that matter the most. From experience, I can say so. And from retrospective reflection, I can testify as well.
I suppose one thing simple thing I just love is beautiful scenery. I just can't get enough of it. But what I enjoy the most about scenery is not its aesthetic value. But, rather, the thoughts it spawns. The thought of being there, actually looking around you (Well, now you know I tend to look at pictures of scenery rather than being there).
Of course, the experience of being in a beautiful place and doing the exact same thing is no less the same. I would like to add that such an experience (in addition to having a strong emotional value) is quite spiritual in nature. To elaborate a little, I (and, I'm sure, others as well) look at a beautiful countryside, I do not think about how it was formed- how it was thousands, millions of years ago and how natural forces shaped it to what it is today.
Instead, I think about it as it is. How beautiful it is. Then my thoughts wander to God, and how beautiful his creation is. Yes, a rather common phrase, a common happening. Yet even if such an experience is merely psychological, it would perhaps be a case of shirking the obvious question. Why think of God when we think "beautiful scenery"? I suppose for some, their presuppositions would certainly compel them to leave off the question as irrelevant. Again, maybe so. Yet, it is still something so strong- this sense of teleology, of design, that we see in nature. Something about beauty that brings us back to God. And not, instead, to natural mechanisms.
Why are we reminded of "someone's" marvelous creation? The question to ask is not who that someone is (although it is important). But rather, why do we think of this "someone". Why do so many people associate such grandeur, such beauty to this thing?
I suppose such questions ought to be answered. And for many, they have been. Yet, it is not the answer that many would like to have. Indeed, even though people do marvel about creation, they end up positing something that doesn't seem to marvel. Something that we hardly (if ever) think of when we reflect on things like scenery.
Evil seems to be the biggest suppressor of people fully acknowledging God. Beauty seems to be its greatest releaser. It is easy to think the former has nothing to do with God and the latter everything. Yet it does. It is something allowed by God. And I daresay that either way, we are either going away from or coming to someone or something. Who that someone, that something is, I would say obvious to every single one of us- whether we acknowledge its existence or not.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, May 04, 2006 at 8:49 PM.
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