Beauty.

3:14:00 PM


After talking for a while with a good friend and a subsequent philosophy class on aesthetics I've given beauty a great deal of thought. I've come to the conclusion that, for the most part, the only things that are beneficial in someway to the human race are considered beautiful. Or perhaps they're not necessarily beneficial but they certainly are not harmful, this being said with the exception of rare occasions in which the observer is not actually aware that the object they are observing is indeed harmful; were they to have that knowledge the object's beauty would be diminished. A friend pointed out to me various arguments for and against God. He explained that if beautiful things, miracles, are proof of God's existence then ugly things, disasters, can also be proof of his absence. This got me thinking, is there anything that is naturally occurring that is truly ugly, sincerely unattractive? I'm sure there are some things, but even those things which we view as disastrous are more often than not, aesthetically pleasing, genuinely beautiful and would easily be seen as such were it not for the purposes they served or the effect they had on humanity. Beauty is all relative to humanity. The only unattractive things in the world are, indeed, a creation of the human race, a wretched fabrication a self-induced disaster. The images above, for example, are all lovely, natural representations of complete disasters, occurrences that threaten humanity: tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes. All things capable of destruction, yet we never recognize their beauty. We're too busy thinking they're a nuisance. Were it not for their destructive qualities we would surely see their beauty in much the same way we recognize the beauty of a quiet sunset or harmless forest. Even destructive things can also be beautiful, it is only humanity that disturbs beauty.

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