Why is It Beautiful?

Today I watched and heard a wren, a sparrow, and the mocking-bird singing. My brain started to trill why why why, what is the meaning meaning meaning? It’s not that they know something we don’t; we know much more than they do, and surely they don’t even know why they sing. No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mocking-bird on the chimney is singing. If the mocking-bird were chirping to give us the long-sought formulae for a unified field theory, the point would be only slightly less irrelevant. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful? ~ Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Why is it beautiful? Why do we perceive certain things to be beautiful, while others are not? Is this perception of beauty a fluke of nature, a product of random processes and natural selection in the battle for the survival of the fittest? Is being able to perceive beauty and sense pleasure required for our survival as a species? For me, there can be only one answer: There must be so much more to the Universe than random processes and survival of the fittest. There must be so much more to space-time than cause and effect. There is design; and purpose as well. These are my thoughts as I continue reading ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’ and ponder at the beauty that we find in the heavens and the earth.