God This Week
The Hunky Hubby was listening to a podcast about consciousness this week. I know, I totally married a Geek. He is awesome is he not. Anyway, it is such a fascinating subject. You have a human being, basically a machine made from meat. We’re fantastic biological contraptions that move in delicate and intricate ways, from our finger tips to our eyeballs. The human eye alone is worthy of a lifetime of study. But it is not our magnificent mechanics that is the most baffling thing about us. We are conscious. Sure, we sort of know the nature of consciousness. Electricity zips through our minds making connections and causing our body to function and feel. But all that this should create is an incredibly complex robot. Why in the world are we conscious? How is it even possible that we are wondering about the nature of consciousness?
As The Hunky Hubby and I thought on this, it naturally led to a discussion of the arts. Just as the idea of consciousness defies analysis, the arts defy evolutionary theory. Painting, song, writing, dance, theater, cinema…um…they are kind of useless professions. Story, song, and image. What do these add to our society? You cannot eat it, wear it, or sleep beneath it. Yet who are the superstars of our culture? Who do we flock to see and lavish wealth and fame upon. Gregory Peck to Benedict Cumberbatch, Charles Dickens to J.K.Rowling, Wolfgang Mozart to Justin Bieber. Our celebrities are those who work in the arts. Make me laugh, make me weep, make me dance and gape and see and live. Those who can accomplish these things we have raised upon the pedestal of fame. Why do we place such value on these evolutionarily useless professions?
Because we are more than incredibly intricate biological machines.
We are conscious. We laugh and love. We hate and dance. We feel and fail and strive and long for more. We were made in the image of God. The creator. The one who is infinitely creative. We are more than just creatures. We are like Him. We long to create and to revel in the beauty around us. We were made to be His and that is why we are more.
