Why beauty?

If blind unguided chance created and formed the world as we see it, then it did a marvelous job. But why beauty? Everywhere one may gaze, there it is, harmonious and soothing. Blue skies and magnificent clouds and golden sunsets, shining seas and tumbling blue rivers, not to mention beautiful women and beautiful horses, beautiful trees and beautiful multi-colored fishes, and the arching rainbow.

Even in the heat of summer, the arid Land of Israel, restored from centuries of desolation, shines with beauty. What were barren mountains (see Mark Twain's 1867 description in 'Innocents Abroad') now are covered with flourishing green forests of pine, statuesque cypress, oak, fig, olive and eucalyptus where the Persian red deer, antelope and wild boar find shade and safety. The coastal valleys are spread now with golden fields of harvested wheat harmoniously interspersed with green orchards of fruit trees and grapevines and green fields of corn, counterpointed by the sparkling blue of the Mediterranean Sea.

In the Galilee the lovely rolling hills above the fertile ploughed valleys and fish farms are contrasted by the towering Mount Hermon, which is snowcapped in the Winter, its life-giving waters tumbling down into the Jordan River system, making fertile the Jordan valley.  And the Kinneret - the Sea of Galilee - shines a metallic blue against the pastel softness of golden hills, all carrying the artifacts of thousands of years of history. And now the rocky mountains of Jerusalem are forested, and planted with colorful gardens. It is very beautiful. It is not a mere subjective response, as “in the eye of the beholder,” for any human eye could not respond otherwise.

But why beauty and not a grotesque ugliness of sightless mindless and random evolution? For whom such beauty and loveliness to behold, which the artist is compelled to paint, and the musician to translate into music, and the poet to transform into poetry?  And the grateful devout to sing “How great Thou art”?