Those who aren't sure about the existence of God/the soul?

Question

(I am one of them.)

What are your thoughts on art, music, and literature? Evolutionarily speaking, aren't they wasteful if not communicating a necessary message?

The transcendent (for lack of a better term) feeling I get in the presence/partaking of great art is one of the things that leads me to question the idea that we are just meat that will eventually be fertilizer.

I could go on--but I don't want to narrow it down too much. I'd love to know your thoughts.

Answer 1

I'm not sure what this has to do with believing, or questioning the existence of "God". Art, music and literature are expressions of our individual creativity. The message is in the works themselves understood or not.

Answer 2

The fact that a belief makes people feel good does not make it true. If people choose to believe because of what they get out of it, fine, I guess, but they should not confuse their beliefs with reality.
Tyler, you make a good point, and interestingly (maybe), this is how the Dewey Decimal system is set up. Natural science numbers are lower than applied sciences, and works of art and literature have higher numbers yet. The implication is that these things come later, after we had the basic survival stuff covered and had time for leisure (non-essential) activities.

Answer 3

I think you just hit the nail on the head. Many say that there is no evidence for the existence of God. That is false. It may be true that there is no conclusive evidence for the existence of God, but there is evidence.

Have you ever seen the movie Amadeus. It documents how Mozart wrote in a way that suggested he was actually dictating the notes rather than composing them himself. He didn't edit or correct errors, etc. I think divine inspiration can be found in more than just the traditional scriptural sources.

I think it is possible to explain art without God, but remember the explanation that is to be preferred is always the simplest. The simplest explanation may or may not be a material one. Atheists tend to confuse the notion of the simplest explanation with the material explanation, but that is a fallacy. The simplest explanation may very well be God.

Answer 4

When natured evolved sentience, nature evolved a being who ultimately could pass on ideas, learned to read and write. With sentience and social organization came something I don't think anything on the planet ever had before. With social organziation there was no longer the 24/7 need to survive, find food, and mate. Mankind actually developed the ability to have "leisure time"-time not specifically required to survive, raise a family etc. Is it any wonder art and appreciation of art evolved from a species that actually had the time to do so?

Answer 5

Sophia, our ultimate goal as a species has always been to ensure our species survival. That goal overides all others, including religious goals. That is why although people say that they want to go to heaven, no one wants to die to go there any time soon. Very few are willing to send their kids there before they have a chance to do something to decrease their chances of going there. People want to live, just as every other species (including plant, animal, bacteria, mold, insect and virus) wants to ensure it's genes survive and are passed on. We are just another species that wants to ensure it's survival. Everything we do is either an attempt to make that happen, or an attempt to make that effort seem more meaningful.

As for the arts, they can indeed seem transcendential. They are not wasteful, as they are a means of communicating a thought or experience and preserving it for others to experience and think about. In all reality, our works of art are the only things that survive relatively unchanged long after we are gone, and the only things that keep our names floating on the tongues of others after we have ceased to exist.

Speeches, buildings, paintings, books, poems, music, movies, stories, crafts, designs, new and old technologies, etc... they are all our works, and all works of art that someone has put their devoted time and energy into producing. When we seek to understand what went into creating those things (the work of our minds and hands) we attempt to place ourselves in the minds of those that created them. That is indeed transcendential, as you have attempted to transcend your own consciousness and enter that of another.

Sharing the vision of another is a highly spiritual experience. That's why even though religious groups will detest and protest the works and ideas of others, their gods will never do so.

Answer 6

Just because I am just meat and will eventually become fertilizer doesn't mean that I shouldn't wield a paint brush.
I watch bird programs on PBS and see them doing lots of things that seem odd but biologists can explain their antics without relying falling back on "god wanted it that way".
If there is a god, it certainly isn't the one who invented the iPod because he wanted it that way.
Religious explanation interferes with scientific explanation and religion interferes with negotiation, compromise, and amicable resolution of problems.
Not all people appreciate art in he same way and not everyone appreciates the same kind of art.
Are appreciation is a culturally determined characteristic an in the US there are many sub-cultures that appreciate different art forms.
Some of my friends appreciate a super clean and refined engine that might power an airplane or motorcycle.
Other friends appreciate really outlandish and colorful motorcycles that are barely rideable and often used as personal background statements.
Others appreciate conventional artistic masters whose work is displayed in museums. Others appreciate the works of those who may be displayed in the future.
Others appreciate art with staples in the center.
The form of art that each human appreciates is associated with survival characteristics, things that enable people to survive in one condition or another. This will enable our species to survive global warming.
Though I hate to think it, those rednecks who like to watch other rednecks turn right and appreciate gas-hog pickup trucks may be able to survive the devastation of global warming more efficiently than tree huggers who lack basic mechanical and hunting skills. They are also less adverse to eating disgusting things like big macks and cockroaches.

Answer 7

If a male peacock's tail feathers are not wasteful, then the ceiling of Sistine Chapel certainly is not. It is no coincidence (or indication of superior ability) that throughout history, the vast majority of great art, music and literature has been created by men, and everything men do - EVERYTHING - art, war, work, play - is to get girls. How much more consistant with evolution can it be?

Answer 8

You might be interested in Steven Pinker's book, "How the Mind Works". He goes into quite a bit of detail on the subjects of music, art, etc. - things that seem to be wasteful from an evolutionary perspective at first glance, but actually make sense under further investigation.

Answer 9

God can placed the soul in at each time. At theory as while it comes to our little one, or under no circumstances as while it comes to our miscarriage. maximum "christians" won't have self belief what I basically stated. yet i realize it to be real and instructed to us by God. God does no longer take a seat and and strike down human beings basically out of a whim. God does no longer placed all toddlers into their mothers, God does no longer bless all little ones. while he talks approximately blessing the youngsters, he's speaking approximately blessing the real little ones of God. a great style of human beings die, in spite of the shown fact that it rather isn't any longer continually on the hand of God. And he has his motives for no longer preventing the deaths. opposite to widespread theory, a newborn could properly be cursed from the time it is conceived, and could proceed on in that curse after delivery.

Answer 10

I feel very sure about the non-existance of any "soul" . Nobody has ever been able to describe it , weigh it , tell us the color , the smell , the size , where in the body it's located , how it exits the body , why haven't doctors who had people die on the operating table ever witnessed any "soul" ?
As one of the great Greek philosophers said , back in 500 BC , " We are not much different from the other animals , nor are we superior to them " .
What happens to all other living things of nature , plant and animal , will happen to us . Simple , believable , understandable , natural ,desireable .