Why are all natural phenomena beautiful? (heaven)

[GeneCosta]

I don't think F5 tornadoes are beautiful.

[3.14]

personal opinion i think its very beautiful how they rip up trailor parks while just being a breeze that rotates

[misanthropic_clown]

I think we hold more of a reverence of natural phenomena, I think it goes beyond finding them to be beautiful. I think it is such reverence that would be the cause of both science and religion.

We see massive forces of nature orders of magnitude over our own ability to manipulate our surroundings, and naturally that humbles us and causes us to see them as great and powerful. I think the theistic sense tells us that something orders of magnitude above ourselves must be responsible for it, and since we view humans as the controlling force of the planet, we create a humanistic 'super-man' several orders of magnitude above our own powers and ability: God.

It also drives us to science in various ways. Something is usually considered more beautiful the more we understand how complex it is, as that gives it an appreciable degree of rarity. It also gives us the power to manipulate nature to a further degree, if we understand how something works we can manipulate it for our own good.
That appeals to our sense of control.

After all, as someone has said, even ugly things can be found to be 'beautiful' in context, but I think labeling that as beautiful gives the misleading idea we are talking purely about aesthetics.

[Halcyon]

Maybe it's more awe than beauty per se?

[misanthropic_clown]

Exactly, let's look at the example someone gave of birth defects. I've done embryology (at least part of it) at university, and birth defects are ugly, and almost always repulsive from an aesthetic sense. In spite of that, it fills me with awe because it puts into context the sheer complexity of embryology. Knowing what can go wrong often magnifies just how glorious something is when it goes right, and in that way seeing birth defects fills one with a sense of wonderment. It is, however, invariably attached to the emotional distress of seeing a child suffering of, or having died from, birth defects, so it comes quite short of having a sense of reverence of itself.

[Don Penguinoini]

Cancer is ugly.

[3.14]

unless its in the shape of elvis or jesus

[GeneCosta]

[Azakel]

Originally Posted by MidnightBlue

Hurricanes are beautiful, too. Scary, but beautiful.

I don't know that all natural phenomena are beautiful, though. Decomposition, for example, can be pretty disgusting.

Agreed, about both the Hurricanes and decomposition.

Originally Posted by GeneCosta

I don't think F5 tornadoes are beautiful.

I do, kind of.

I find Ball Lightning to be beautiful:Ball lightning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Bouncing Ball]