Truth is beauty; beauty, truth.
Part of the reason I believe in God is that there exist things in this universe which are pointlessly beautiful. The pointlessness is a major factor.
I understand why beauty or attraction exists in many things -- that is, I understand when there is a reason why something would be considered beautiful or attractive. Beauty in other human beings is a function both of health and social dominance: we're attracted to people who could provide a perceived advantage to the next generation. Beauty in music may be a result of resonance with our brain waves. Certain foods are tastier than others because we have evolved to require certain nutrients, and I have often found that cravings for specific foods are indicative of some deficiency that might be answered by those foods.
But why is a sunset beautiful? Of what possible use could there be, to the human race or to any other living thing or any system in the universe, in the acknowledgement that sunsets are beautiful? What about rainbows, clouds, the night sky? The soaring lines of a mediaeval cathedral inspires awe by drawing our eyes upwards, but why should they? Why should this awe be inspired at all by this arrangement of stone?
I have this idea that beauty resonates with us because it speaks to some mysterious connection we have with the Divine. We can't have a connection to the Divine if there is nothing Divine to be connected to. "Pointless" beauty -- beauty that does not serve some purpose related to the survival of species -- is evidence of something higher, something out there calling to us and which we are hardwired to seek out. I think this something is God. And God is, perhaps, multi-faceted: if different (pointless) things appeal to people differently, it is because their connection to Him is different.
So I think, when creating art, that it is perhaps more important to seek beauty than to try to infuse the work with meaning or truth. As human beings, our understanding of anything is necessarily limited and flawed; we can very easily be wrong about everything. If we create something that embodies our idea of truth, we can only say that "this is what I believe to be true". But if create something that appeals to us as beautiful, then we can say "this touches the connection I have with the Divine; as such, this is an aspect of the universal truth".
I understand why beauty or attraction exists in many things -- that is, I understand when there is a reason why something would be considered beautiful or attractive. Beauty in other human beings is a function both of health and social dominance: we're attracted to people who could provide a perceived advantage to the next generation. Beauty in music may be a result of resonance with our brain waves. Certain foods are tastier than others because we have evolved to require certain nutrients, and I have often found that cravings for specific foods are indicative of some deficiency that might be answered by those foods.
But why is a sunset beautiful? Of what possible use could there be, to the human race or to any other living thing or any system in the universe, in the acknowledgement that sunsets are beautiful? What about rainbows, clouds, the night sky? The soaring lines of a mediaeval cathedral inspires awe by drawing our eyes upwards, but why should they? Why should this awe be inspired at all by this arrangement of stone?
I have this idea that beauty resonates with us because it speaks to some mysterious connection we have with the Divine. We can't have a connection to the Divine if there is nothing Divine to be connected to. "Pointless" beauty -- beauty that does not serve some purpose related to the survival of species -- is evidence of something higher, something out there calling to us and which we are hardwired to seek out. I think this something is God. And God is, perhaps, multi-faceted: if different (pointless) things appeal to people differently, it is because their connection to Him is different.
So I think, when creating art, that it is perhaps more important to seek beauty than to try to infuse the work with meaning or truth. As human beings, our understanding of anything is necessarily limited and flawed; we can very easily be wrong about everything. If we create something that embodies our idea of truth, we can only say that "this is what I believe to be true". But if create something that appeals to us as beautiful, then we can say "this touches the connection I have with the Divine; as such, this is an aspect of the universal truth".