My Personal Proof of God, Part 1: Beauty

Answering the knock at my studio door. Who's is it?

Imagine you were born inside of a prison which is enclosed within a great concentration camp, the only thing that can be seen from its broken, filthy windows. The sky is a constantly overcast drizzle. Every day you live in miserable conditions, struggling in cold and pain, and your unvarying daily job is to fill out endless tax forms for some monstrous hidden bureaucracy. That's it. Then one day you die.

But then you are resurrected into a totally new world. It's not only very comfortable, but there's not any place on this planet– no desert, wilderness, icefield, jungle, nor even the middle of the ocean– that is not supremely beautiful. This incredible world produces not only beauty in all directions but food enough to keep happy any human tribe who has lived there long enough to learn its song.

That first scenario would be much more productive. A world populated with slaves would produce huge value at little cost. Such a world is easier to arrange and therefore much more likely (think of the design issues), not to mention cheaper by nearly infinity.  Human life could be much more like the first scenario. (We know it's possible because we've all been there!) But the thing is– it isn't! Astonishingly, our life is much more like the second; a kind of heaven!

What did we do to deserve this? The second scenario is monumentally difficult to make and incredibly expensive, not to mention that everything has to function properly or else the whole will eventually come apart. But even so, this world is essentially heavenly and perfectly-functioning. It was apparently not intended to produce efficiency or production, but designed that the creatures inhabiting it could live lives rich with beautiful interaction, with all their needs met, with all garbage magically recycled (one's trash is another's food!), everything renewed to its normal state of beauty, as if the whole universe were designed for each one's particular pleasure. And humans were further unnecessarily blessed with not only consciousness, but creativity. Why?

This to me is evidential proof of a God who cares so much for each of us that we are all owners of a much greater wealth than any one of us could ever imagine; so great that no matter how deeply you look into microscopic structure or deep space, you never come to the end of this bounty, or as some say, you are forever held in the embrace of a loving God.  So, after all that, it would be truly a shame if the human race were blind to this awe-some gift. Yet many are. I try every day not to be. And you?