The nature of man

This fine looking animal visits our backyard frequently to feed. The little plants on his left have small purple flowers. I had seen these plants before, they were different--they were covered with flowers. Ours are not--the iguana comes up to eat them. Animals have no sense of beauty--flowers are one of iguanas favorite foods, although they will eat grass. Rather than admire the beauty of the flowers he eats them. When was the last time you saw a dog (or any other animal for that matter) stop to admire a sunset, or a sunrise, or any beautiful thing?

Men are different from animals in a number of ways, but this is one of the more obvious.
Certainly societies may have different ideas of what is beautiful, but mankind appreciates beauty. Why do we travel? To see the beauty! Why do we buy National Geographic and such magazines? To see the beauty!

If man is just a refined ape, how do we account for this innate desire for beauty? No other animal, not even the monkeys, has such a desire. Evolution cannot explain it--our esthetic nature does not help us survive in any way. If only those things that make us stronger, live longer, etc. are passed on (survival of the fittest) how can we explain this?

Just as every man can appreciate beauty, every man has an innate desire to worship something (or somebody). God created man with both of these desires, things which the animals don't have. There is no other explanation.

Tol