Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Nature shows make people believe in God more?

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

Patchy Ausstechformen We usually save these treats for Sunday but, oh well: From Daily Mail:

TV shows designed to inspire awe at the natural world could make viewers less inclined to believe scientific theories about existence, a study suggests.

It found religious people who watch programmes such as BBC’s Planet Earth, presented by Sir David Attenborough, are more likely to have their faith in God reaffirmed by the beauty they see on screen.

Atheists, meanwhile, are more likely to believe scientific theories that involve order rather than randomness in the universe. More.

Well, the obvious solution is to mainly air nature shows about ugly, boring places and tell people to watch them out of a sense of duty. Or pass laws making it mandatory. Otherwise, we’ll just be stuck with the How Great Thou Art problem indefinitely.

See also: Attenborough attacked for opposing apes, monkeys used as lab rats The Americans ended chimp research for human health years ago because the field was a dead end.* But the field has its defenders in Britain. *See, at the page,O’Leary for News’s proposal for fixing the problem.

Follow UD News at Twitter!

Comments
make viewers less inclined to believe ["]scientific[" confused with materialistic] theories about existence [...]Atheists, meanwhile, are more likely to believe scientific theories that involve order rather than randomness in the universe.
That's because the order in the universe is obvious to all. Materialist theories of origins and existence are not parsimonious. Time to ditch them. Psalm 19
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. 2 Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world.
bb
September 16, 2016
September
09
Sep
16
16
2016
07:16 PM
7
07
16
PM
PDT
Dean @1 Exactly Dean! I was going to post the same verse. It just shows the truth of God's Word. Only humans have the capacity for awe! Why? Could it be so that we can appreciate who God is? Could it be so that we can understand how great, and powerful He is and worship, love, and praise Him with all our hearts like we are commanded to do? If we were created for God's glory, - to know, love, worship, and serve the Creator - then certainly the capacity for awe would be an important thing for humans to possess!tjguy
September 16, 2016
September
09
Sep
16
16
2016
05:00 PM
5
05
00
PM
PDT
There is actually a Theistic argument entitled 'the argument from beauty'.
Argument from beauty Excerpt: Author John C. Wright wrote in his 2014 essay How We’ve Been Robbed of Beauty by the Left:
"The strongest argument against the atheism so beloved of the Left is not an argument that can be put in words, for it is the argument of beauty. If you see a sunset clothed in scarlet like a king descending to his empurpled pyre, or wonder at the gleaming thunder of a waterfall, if you find yourself fascinated by the soft intricacy of a crimson rose or behold the cold virgin majesty of the morning star, much less see and enter a cathedral or a walled garden...or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, if indeed you see real beauty and for a moment you forget yourself, then you are drawn out of yourself into something larger. In that timeless moment of sublime rapture, the heart knows even if the head cannot put it into words that the dull and quotidian world of betrayal, pain, disappointment and sorrow is not the only world there is. Beauty points to a world beyond this world, a higher realm, a country of joy where there is no death. Beauty points to the divine. The Left hates this argument, because – since it is not put into words – it cannot be refuted in words."[3]
"Natural selection has no reason to produce beauty," Ann Gauger says in Metamorphosis about a principle that applies to flowers as well as butterflies. "Beauty is a sign of the transcendent. It's purely gratuitous. We all recognize it. We just have to acknowledge what it points to."[4] http://www.conservapedia.com/Argument_from_beauty
Of related note, one of the main arguments for atheism, if not THE main argument for atheism, is the theologically based argument from evil. I would argue that a strong corollary, if not identical twin, to the argument from evil would be 'the argument from ugly'.
Student Vs. Professor using the argument from evil (Student's answer to the professor's argument? The existence of evil necessitates the prior existence of good.,, In other words, the argument from evil, which is arguably atheism's main argument, is a self-refuting argument!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3qjDF9ksJU
And, like the argument from evil, the argument from ugly is a departure from the 'beautiful' way things ought to be. In other words, to classify something as ugly in the first place, the human mind must first have a standard of beauty to that has been departed from. That is to say, ugly cannot possibly exist without the prior existence of beauty.
Aesthetic Arguments for the Existence of God: Excerpt: Beauty,,, can be appreciated only by the mind. This would be impossible, if this `idea’ of beauty were not found in the mind in a more perfect form. http://www.quodlibet.net/articles/williams-aesthetic.shtml
As to a finding beauty 'in a more perfect form':
July 08, 2014 Near-Death Experiences: More Real Than Real - 2014 Experiencers usually visit places of indescribable beauty and have reunions with passed loved ones, including pets. http://www.medicalbag.com/neurology/near-death-experiences-more-real-than-real/article/472601/
Verse and Music:
Psalm 27:4 "One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple." Creation Calls -- are you listening? Music by Brian Doerksen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwGvfdtI2c0
Supplemental 'beauty':
MercyMe - Beautiful - music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vh7-RSPuAA Gungor "Beautiful Things" - music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyPBtExE4W0 Timelapse video playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVcTPfBxOPU&list=PL_T9MO520krq5QsT1sIHdmBUNodksi8v2 Eye of the Storm 4K Ultra HD - timelapse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6zR2T9vn2c
bornagain77
September 16, 2016
September
09
Sep
16
16
2016
03:50 PM
3
03
50
PM
PDT

Leave a Reply