THE ARGUMENT FROM MUSIC...& Other Aesthetic Arguments for God

Peter Kreeft simply argues: "Bach's music exists, therefore God exists" (Peter Kreeft, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, p.81). Kreeft presents this as simply an intuitive argument. But I have examined this argument more closely and found that there is in fact much more to be said about the beauty and power of music that we experience as humans. (See the audio, etc. for my class below.)

We all know what ugly looks like when we see it.* And yet within creation, everywhere we look the overwhelming impression is of beauty. This--combined with the fact that we have a built-in ability to experience and appreciate that beauty--points us to a God who created us to enjoy this world which is a reflection of his own beauty and majesty.

Steven Weinberg, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics...and an ardent atheist...writes: "I have to admit that sometimes nature seems more beautiful than strictly necessary.  Outside the window of my home office, there is a hackberry tree, visited frequently by a convocation of politic birds: blue jays, yellow-throated vireos, and loveliest of all, an occasional red cardinal.  Although I understand pretty well how brightly colored feathers evolved out of a competition for mates, it is almost irresistible to imagine that all this beauty was somehow laid out for our benefit.” *p. 250, Dreams of a Final Theory

Indeed it was.

*Note: Even ugliness makes sense within the Christian worldview, but that is a topic for another time. Part of that answer is found in this excellent 30-minute video featuring Michael Spicher.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

RESOURCES for Digging Deeper
My Class: "Beauty & the Argument from Music:
*MP3 Audio (45 minutes)
*PowerPoint Slideshow: When you click on this link, you will note the option at the top to "Open with Google Slides" or you may open with MS PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress (which is free).
*Class Handout
*I recommend opening the audio and using the PowerPoint Slideshow as you listen (and/or the handout).

RESOURCE LINKS FOR WEEK 3:
*VIDEO MENTIONED IN THE PRESENTATION: 
"Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale"

*MUSICAL SAVANTS:
*"Savant - Leslie Lemke"
*"The Mysterious Gift of Musical Savants"
*"A Musical Savant Shows Talent"
*"Real People, Real Stories: Blind, Autistic, Musical Savant (Tony DeBlois)"
*"The Musical Genius (Autism Documentary) | Real Stories"
*"Top 10 AMAZING SAVANTS With REAL SUPER POWERS"
*MY YouTube PLAYLIST FOR EXPLORING THE AMAZING PROPERTIES OF MUSIC:
*"The Argument from Music"
*SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE FOR A GREAT "QUOTE on the Evidence for God in Music"

*The entire 16-week course may be found here: "HOW TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST THAT CHANGES THE WORLD (Apologetics 101: A Cumulative Case)"

MORE LINKS FOR DIGGING DEEPER
Videos
*Doug Powell: This 40-minute video lecture given at the 2013 SALT conference presents the argument that objective beauty is evidence for God.
*"Biology of the Baroque" produced by the Discovery Institute and based on the work of Dr. Michael Denton's 2016 book: This 20-minute video is beautiful to watch and intellectually stimulating. It examines non-adaptive traits to present a powerful aesthetic argument for how God's creative touch is seen in nature. And (at the end) it also gives a very cogent anthropological argument, showing significant ways in which humans are completely distinct from all other creatures on the planet. These issues are an insurmountable challenge to naturalistic evolution, but they make perfect sense if the world is designed. They also coincide perfectly with the revelation about creation and humans (created in God's image) 
given in Genesis.
*Michael Spicher: An excellent 30-minute video interview hosted by GivingAnAnswer.

Articles
*Have you ever wondered why music has the power to move us? by Michael Ots

*"The Argument from Beauty" by Alexander Pruss
*"Aesthetic Arguments for the Existence of God" by Peter Williams
*"Arguments from Beauty and Aesthetics" at The Christian Apologetics Alliance
*"Argument from Beauty" at Conservapedia
*Last Seminary hosts five articles on the aesthetic argument that can be download for FREE--with brief abstracts for each.

Books
*The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet by Thomas Dubay
*The Beauty of the Faith: Using Aesthetics for Christian Apologetics by Joseph Wooddell.
*A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature by Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt

QUOTE on the evidence for God in music

*”A world thrilling in every atom with rhythmic vibrations; a race of sentient and intelligent beings, so constituted as to perceive, combine, and enjoy an endless variety of musical sounds, and able to reproduce them by artistic methods in elaborate or simpler forms, which gratify and exalt their higher nature; these in a universe ruled by all-embracing law that binds together its limitless realms in a unity demanding one sole cause equal, at least, to the production of its component elements and forces: given these factors, what must we infer? God.

The Deity thus declared is a perfect Being, whose nature is harmony, who is keenly alive to dissonance, physical or psychical, but who delights in every form of beauty. He has set the laws and forces of the universe in an exquisite order, such as will bless his creatures, by their own responsive cooperation, with innumerable melodic and harmonic sounds, that intimate the finer beauty of holiness, and may greatly aid in its attainment. 

If there were no other proofs of the existence of a Creator, supposably infinite in wisdom, power, and goodness, and also of a spiritual constitution of the universe, we need be neither atheists nor agnostics. Music, with its implications and possibilities, would suffice to show to all minds capable of responding to its appeal, and of reasoning upon its causes and correlations, that there is a Supreme Power making for harmony, happiness, and spiritual perfecting. (p.17-18 of God and Music by John Harrington Edwards, 1905)

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**My growing MASTER LIST OF APOLOGETIC RESOURCES