Red Eft
Here is a picture of a beautiful red eft, a stage in the life cycle of the eastern newt. This picture was taken last summer at the top of Mt. Monadnock in southern New Hampshire by the side of a pool of water in the granite.
What is it about we humans that attrcats us to such things? Why are we attracted to such beauty? Things like this seem to speak to something deep within us. They seem to speak of something larger and deeper than scientific descriptions. Awe and wonder. The sublime.
No, says the naturalistic scientist or philosopher, these feelings are just chemical reactions in your cells, reactions that create the illusion of something more, something more than atoims and molecules and electromagnetism. But that is all they are, says the stoic scientist. Feelings of awe and wonder at sublime beauty are nothing more than chemistry molded and shaped by millions of years of purposeless physical processes. Go ahead and imagine that there is something more if that pleases you.
But what if there is something more? What if these feelings are not just tricks that evolution has played on us?
