Romans 1:20 – “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” [ESV]
Do you feel more connected to songs that are actually written by the singer? Do you feel more engaged with a novel once you know something about the author?
The whimsical story of the unassuming boy named Harry Potter became more charming once I learned of JK Rowling’s destitute personal and financial condition when she wrote it. The hymn “It Is Well” became a much richer well-spring of Christian hope when I learned of the tragic events surrounding Horatio Spafford and his wife when he penned it.
Our enjoyment of art is inseparable from its artist. The beauty of art is not about the medium itself but the fact that the medium connects one human to another. Each meaningful detail you observe in the art piece connects you to the mind and heart of the artist. And when those details really resonate with your experience, it even seems like the artist knows something about you—like they knew someone like you would be experiencing their art.
On the contrary, do you feel disconnected from a film after you read about the wayward personal beliefs of its director? Do you put down the novel once you have reason to doubt the author?
The same well-loved Harry Potter series was rejected by some due to suspicions about JK Rowling’s association with the dark arts. More recently, some who have loved the series for years have developed a sour taste toward her works in response to her recent comments about the transgender movement. Similarly, many long-time fans of Will Smith’s endearing films have lost affinity for his work since last year’s Oscar’s incident.
Losing respect for the artist becomes a stumbling block to enjoying the art. It disconnects you from its beauty. On the other hand, admiration for the artist breathes life into the art.
But what about a work of art with no artist behind it? Would it be lifeless? Void of beauty? If you read a heart-warming narrative, then discover it was artificially generated by OpenAI, would it not lose its beauty? Or if you are drawn into an imaginatively constructed sci-fi image then discover it was generated by AI, would it not leave you feeling disconnected? The imaginatively constructed becomes merely constructed.
The predominant narrative of our time is one where everything we see and experience has come about randomly. But it’s hard for me to imagine a world where the oak trees were the outcome of a billion-series of unplanned accidents. Or the maple trees and their syrup and their helicopter seeds. The caterpillar and its transition to butterfly. The orcas. The peacocks. The invisible resilience of the water bears. The honeybee. The whole system of bees with their well-ordered community. The symbiotic ecosystem of organic systems. The human body. The way the circulatory system threads itself through the nervous system and the digestive system and reproductive system. The way the hair in your skin knows something about temperature and the insulative property of air—the way it has a built-in mechanism to stand up when cold and lie flat when hot. The way it releases sweat because the built-in sweat glands know something about the cooling properties of evaporation. Are these really just billions of congruous accidents?
It’s hard for me to believe we live in a universe caused by nothing yet whose causeless effect is cosmically complex and cohesive. A system of systems of systems. All following arbitrarily fixed and unshakable physical rules. Gravitational force. Magnetism. Conservation of angular momentum as the planets rotate. Action and reaction. The speed of light. Waveforms. Atoms. Dark matter. One big accident surging into billions of other accidents, bouncing into other accidents, acting and reacting, deforming and reforming. Ultimately spawning organic life—a process of cell reproduction curiously instructed by digital codes and processed by biological micro-machines in an otherwise analog world.
I don’t know what it would be like to live in an uncreated, arbitrary universe. I am convinced it is not the one we live in.
Yet somehow the blinders have been set. The narratives have been well-woven through the culture. There is ample opportunity for the enlightened mind to remain blind to the artistry of the universe. Consummate artistry choked out by the comprehensive hubris of human knowledge.
Surely it renders one’s experience of the world remarkably more isolated. Disconnected from the fullness of reality—perhaps unknowingly to the person bound by such tragic blindness.
But in a created world—as with all created art—deeper knowledge about the art does not somehow obviate the artist but breeds deeper curiosity about the artist. The depth of understanding of the art is always coupled with a depth of connection with the artist and a richness of beauty experienced. And it’s all the more rapturous when the artist is understood as someone with admirable character.
To the person who sees that the world was indeed created by God—a God who is good—the design and purpose of the helicopter seed suddenly explodes with beauty. The human eye—the cohesive system of the retina, the lens, the rods and cones, the dynamic aperture of the pupil—bursts with the glory of the designer. The structured patterns that form on the peacock tail feathers. The drama of the mountains and the water cycle that courses through them. The fusion engine that warms and feeds earth from its expertly-tuned distance—the third rock tilted at just the right angle to support its system of systems of systems. The symmetry and consistent structure of our bodies with unique variation of form across the plane of symmetry and from person to person. The curious distinction of male and female and the surreal compatibility of their distinctions united. The richness of diversity of life forms built on an astonishing consistency of digital micro-structure.
What’s more, the things created are but the tip of the cosmic iceberg. There is an incomprehensibly rich and voluminous story that has been developing and pulsing ever since the universe first streamed from divine vocal chords. A story of long-suffering steadfast love, redemption, and restoration organically weaving through time and space, bursting with the beauty of God everywhere history flows.
The universe is teeming with art. The depths of artistry of creation and of the dynamic story that has been revealed to us are all designed to point us to the glory of a good Creator who made us and saves us—who offers an eternal personal connection to those who have eyes to see and a heart to receive. What riches of joy await the one who meditates on the art that engulfs us.