Beauty Exists Because God Exists: An argument from objective beauty

1. If objective beauty exists, then God exists.

2. Many things are objectively beautiful.

3. Therefore God exists.

1. If objective beauty exists, then God exists.

If beauty is only subjective (as in beauty is in the eye of the beholder), then beauty does not really exist. For one person might say that something is beautiful and another might think the same thing is ugly. For there would be no standard for what is beautiful. But many things are objectively beautiful, because the beauty is in the object.

Think of the mountains or the ocean. A popular question for people to begin or continue conversations is “Would you rather be at the ocean or at the mountains?” Why is this a popular question? Because both are understood as being objectively beautiful! When asked such a question, no one says, “Why would you ask such a question?” They just answer it because they assume the objectively beautiful nature of the mountains and/or ocean automatically. This just goes to show that these things are objectively beautiful.

2. Many things are objectively beautiful.

When I say the words, “rotting, bloated, smelly, roadkill” what comes to mind? Did you make a repulsive face? We all know what is repulsive. Since we know what is repulsive, we must also know that there is a standard of beauty. That standard is God. Some people say that suicide is beautiful, like the picture that Andy Warhol used of Evelyn McHale. But people also say that abortion is a good thing. In other words, people who argue these things are out of touch with reality. Reality is that which corresponds or conforms to what is true. If someone says that something repulsive is beautiful, such as suicide, then there is something objectively wrong with that person. 1 Timothy 4:1-2 reads, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” This is saying that their moral compass is uncalibrated. North no longer takes one north!

Besides, I’m sure that it is easy for nearly everyone to admit that a suicide is a terrible thing, there is nothing good about them, no matter how beautiful the lady that committed suicide was. A person who believes that a suicide can be beautiful likely never had a parent or child or a sibling commit suicide. It is a fact that everyone who commits suicide has or had parents. There is no loving parent (an objectively beautiful thing), on earth that would want their child to do such a thing.

Again, because we know what is repulsive, we must admit that there is a standard for beauty. With all of our televisions now being HD, imagine going back to an analog, black and white, cathode ray tube (CRT) television that sits on the floor. We would never do this because we seek what is beautiful. Nostalgia might be beautiful, but one would never want to watch LOTR on a B&W screen after they saw it on a HD 4K widescreen TV. Even our computer generated images (CGI) seek to get more true to the real thing simply because the real thing is more beautiful than what early 2000’s CGI could produce.


Yes it is not a quality picture, but those who have been there recognize the objective beauty in the Vatican Museums and in the Sistine Chapel.

We recognize that things are objectively beautiful simply by going to an electronics store with a bunch of televisions on display with the vivid imagery. The store is literally showing off the ability of the televisions, but how they do it is with things that are objectively beautiful. They want to wow us when we see them, and so the best way to do this is by showing the things that are objectively beautiful. Television engineers will always strive for the highest pixels and the clearest image because they recognize the standard for beauty.

3. Therefore God exists.

God created certain things to be objectively beautiful because He is the inventor of art and beauty.
These objects, whether they are butterflies, mountains, sea creatures, flowers, gazelles, or the distant planets, caves, galaxies, and cosmos, are objectively beautiful because God exists. All of these things being objectively beautiful points to a transcendent Creator.

"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge."

~Psalm 19:1-2

Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus

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